Vanderbilt Fantasy

So it's been an interesting and semi busy week(s). Work has been busier, but it comes in spurts, often at inopportune times, like early morning, lunch, late night, or weekends. Which just takes some getting used to. So with work and adapting to a new summer schedule without the distractions of TV, I found it harder to blog a little. Oh well, life has been pretty boring without much to talk about anyway. Great weather provides some great hiking opportunities which did some up at Ferncliff Forest and plan do hopefully do some more in the future. I also went to visit the Vanderbilt Mansion while I still have some time on my National Parks pass. It was cool to see and being free is also cool. It's a shame that a large portion of the parks and historic sites around me are mainly just houses, don't receive a discount, or are already free. It's a shame I didn't get anywhere further north while I had it since it's pretty much dead now.

I saw a few movies recently. The first was Frost Nixon which I found to be a pretty good political movie, but ultimately moved along at a pretty slow pace and the whole first half was pretty uninteresting. I also saw The Reader. This was a good character driven story drama about a boy who falls for an older woman and then deals with her the rest of his life pretty much. Unfortunately, Netflix spoiled the movie for me having a major plot point in their synopsis. I just wanted to refresh my memory as to why I put it on my queue in the first place, but they ruined it. I thought the movie was good and the rich characters kept it interesting, but it moved along pretty slow as well. Luckily it didn't drone on and on like other life stories and kept it pretty succinct at 2 hours.

I have been finding time to play some video games but wasn't able to give full reviews. I already mentioned how I thought Uncharted was really good and am waiting for the sequel. I played and finished the new Prince of Persia. It pretty much held up to my first impressions. The platforming was fun, but the battles almost seemed tedious. The open world has horrible pacing since it's do the same basic task 24 times. It was still a fun romp. I tried out the Infamous demo. Seemed like a fun super hero game and the reviews I've seen seem to improve on the GTA open world with a more plot driven narrative. So I decided to purchase it since I had a Gamestop gift card, but who knows when I'll get to it. I also decided to pick back up an epic RPG for the start of my summer gaming. Not having TV allows me put in time almost every day into gaming which is great. And choosing an epic 100+ hour RPG now ensures that I won't take almost a year to complete (hopefully). I decided to reach back into my PS2 pile and pulled out Final Fantasy 12. It's one of the few I haven't beaten and feel like I can get into it now. I started to play it when it first came out and got maybe half way in it, but since it's been ~2.5 years, I decided to start from the beginning. So far so good, but I can see why i probably didn't like it to begin with. For one, the game feels very open ended with different areas opening up all the time which was probably a bit too much. Also and probably more important is the pure random of everything. Everything is so random which makes things a chore, like treasure hunting. It's random when the chest will appear, random if it's money or not, and then random which item you'll get. Because most times you won't get the good items out of them, you are forced to buy them from shops which means that you are almost always short on gil. So far though, since I have the time to devote, I'm still enjoying it.

Time in NYC

This past weekend was a good weekend. Kristen came up with Jared and visited along with touring NYC. On Friday they went shopping down at the Woodbury Outlets and had fun, so I guess I should go down there sometime. Maybe some weekend where I'm not doing much or hiking down in that area. On Saturday we took a trip to NYC. It was essentially the same basic trip that I took with MOM and Dad a few weeks ago, but with them it seemed more relaxed and I had a better idea of more efficient areas to go. We did the Statue of Liberty and briefly Ellis Island. It was a shame it was kinda an ugly day, especially in the morning. We then went towards Times Square and had lunch. Afterwards we wandered over to 30 Rock. On the way, we saw a huge street vendor sale on 6th Avenue. It was pretty cool and really big. I was surprised by it and enjoyed it immensely. It was probably my favorite part. We then wandered around Central Park for a while before getting tired and headed home. We also made a quick stop by Central Market and picked up some delicious desserts. When we got back in Poughkeepsie, we ate at O'Shea's and got some good food and drinks. Sunday they left early and I played catch up with all of my podcasts and Hulu stuff. By the way, what a great season finale for Grey's anatomy. Up to this point, I was so dead tired of the show and was going to give it up. I was no longer the prime demographic and was looking for something to dump. I didn't care about the characters anymore since they all seemed too crazy now a days. Then this finale just roped me back in. It was extremely good and the whole season up to now seemed to be for that episode. Great.

I also was able to catch a small budget foreign flick called Time Crimes. It is basically about time travel and a pretty normal man's experience with it. It started out pretty slow but by about half way through, it was really good and I liked unwrapping some of the twists and turns even though some of it was pretty predictable and confusing. The ending gave a pretty good twist and I liked it a lot (I wonder what happened after the cops showed up). A great indy flick.

Way to go Mikey

So last night was an excellent night. I attended the local Penn State Alumni Association's Spring Banquet. Normally I'm not a very big social butterfly, but the main reason I attended was that they invited Mike McQuerey to be a guest speaker. During the opening social hour I met a few people (whose names I all forget, go me) and got to mingle with Mike himself for a very short while. We then had a pretty good dinner. Lots of small portions, but they tasted good. Mike then gave his speech. He was a great speaker, being very open about himself, the program, JoePa, media, conference, everything. It was really great to see. It was wonderful that he was so open since I did hear a few things not quite heard before. He was a super nice guy and is always busy. I hope he keeps up the good work since we've been landing some good recruits. It was a good night, even for a hermit like me.

Wow, Fringe-y

Wow, I just wanted to say what an amazing season finale of Fringe. At first I thought it was a little gimmicky but by the end with alternate dimension [and grave yards] and then the [NYC Skyline]. Absolutely brilliant! Then Leonard Nimoy was an added bonus. Truly a great series. The whole season has been great and I hope it continues with lots of good stuff in the fall. I don't want some lulls like Lost had. But concise to say, yes, I am still very much in love with this show.

Set to Stun

So I had a pretty good week and weekend. Nothing too exciting, but good none the less. So on Saturday, I went and saw the new Star Trek movie. It was pretty amazing and a great space adventure. I'm glad I went and saw it opening weekend. Although in the past I wasn't too big of a Star Trek fan, I think I may be after the movie. It made me want to see more, although if I act on it is yet to be determined. I think the plot did get pretty crazy at times, which may be off putting to some watchers, but I liked it. I also wonder if this whole thing is supposed to be in canon or not since it seems like it might through some things off.

Also this weekend I went on a very short hike. I read in the NYT an article about Hudson Valley vistas and Burger hill was listed, so I decided I would check it out. It turned out to be a very short hike up a medium sized hill. The view was ok, but it was nothing special and didn't even have a view of much. I was more surprised that something like this would be listed in the NYT. If I was closer to NYC and decided to come check this out, I would be mad. Since I am much closer, I was ok with it, but was expecting more.

I also finished two rentals this week. I got Benjamin Button which was a pretty good life story, but was epically long which detracted from it overall. I also thought there were some major plot holes since he's born and died with the body of a baby which doesn't make sense. He's also stupid with each. This strides from the original story since he was supposed to be born with the knowledge of an old man. I also just wish that his body didn't somehow shrink.
I also saw Tropic Thunder. Nothing special really, just an ok comedy. I found my self laughing a few times, but not too much.

In my weekend gaming, I finished up Uncharted and started the newest Prince of Persia. Uncharted was great and I look forward to the sequel. I even did a little bit of trophy hunting (although I'm not too sure why since they mean nothing and I don't really have any PSN friends that would care). Prince of Persia seems ok as of now. It is beautiful and the platforming is fun, but the pacing is absolutely horrible and the game can get repetitive. I would guess I'm halfway through or so. The game opens up to 24 different levels and after you complete one, it's just rinse and repeat 23 more times. For now I'm sticking with it since the platforming is a lot of fun.