Friday, January 17, 2014

New Toy Get!


I kind of stopped doing Pick-Up Posts a while back, but with Chance's recent awesome purchases and my coincidental splurging, it was just too hard to pass up.  Apologies as always for the lackluster picture quality as my Vita is my best camera since I don't care much for pictures until I get into situations where I need to take pictures.  One of these days, I'll fix that.  Maybe.  Probably.  Anyway, as you can see above, I have bought myself two things that promise to offer hours upon hours of entertainment between the two of them.  I'll start with the more obvious one first, however.

Riddick:  The Complete Collection packs all four movies starring Richard B. Riddick into one nice little package (spanning three disks) and was only recently released alongside the standalone release of Riddick.  As in Riddick, the movie that just came out last year that was a return-to-form of Pitch Black, rather than the over-the-top action of Chronicles of Riddick.  Or at least, that's what it was billed as - I don't know for sure since I haven't watched it just yet.  However it's the single movie that I bought the collection for, as I already own the other three movies.  Is that a bit overboard?  Yes.  Did I mostly buy it because they just didn't have Riddick for stand-alone purchase?  Mostly!  But more than that, they deserve my money for Pitch Black and Chronicles (maybe not Dark Fury) and thus, I'm throwing good money at Riddick and betting on a winner, while still having the other two movies to fall back on regardless.

The other thing is my brand new Kindle Fire HD (7" display, I didn't splurge for the HDX or the bigger HD) to assist in my goal of "actually starting to read books again".  I had realized sometime last year that most of my reading was done on websites and such, none of it actual novels or publications and that was kind of bad.  Though not in a snobby way or anything, just, you know, we all need to read books sometimes.  A friend of mine has been bugging me about a particular book, Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, and with the recent purchase of a Kindle Fire HD for my father for Christmas (with which I had to fight tooth and nail to get it to work correctly) I decided two aim for two birds.  Having harnessed Amazon's black magic and mentality from my wrestling with my dad's Kindle, I went into my own experience knowing exactly what to do, and as such, set-up was a breeze for myself.

The main thing about Kindles and Amazon is that they pretty much stand ever-vigilant with hands outstretched for a Credit Card if they do not have one from you currently.  Sure, you can use a Kindle without one attached to your account, but nothing, not even attaching Gift Cards to it, will allow you to buy anything.  You can get free apps without one because otherwise that would be silly as hell, but that's about it.  So if you're someone like my dad who just wants it to look at the internet every now and then and to play some free games?  It's perfect.  Otherwise, you're more or less over a barrel.  However, there is an option for paranoid loonies such as myself, in the form of pre-paid credit cards, and I'm happy to report that Amazon accepts that just as easily as anything else, even though mine only has a cushion balance of $50.  Combined with a $50 Amazon Card for -actual- purchases, and yes, I did spend a little bit this day, but it's going to be quite worth it.

While my Vita has been -more- than serviceable as a media hub with Netflix and Youtube (which I'll still have to use it for that, imagine that one) the lack of a dedicated Hulu Plus app has been particularly damning, especially with my interest in Kill la Kill that lead to actually watching it through one of the very few Anime Streaming sites that actually supports MP4.  Yes, I understand that Hulu Plus is the devil with its insane amount of ads (meaning any when it's a goddamn paid service) and such, but it also just -has- the episodes (plus the entirety of South Park, I believe, or at least a bulk of it) and I want to just be able to sit down and watch shit sometimes without going on a scavenger hunt through the entirety of the internet for it.  A larger screen doesn't hurt matters any either, especially not the Kindle Fire HD's crisp LCD (no, not OLED, which means the Vita still has a leg-up) 1280x800 screen.  So, while not perfect, I do think I'll be able to comfortably split my non-game media time with my Vita and my new Kindle.

Speaking of games, while I'm not a fan of Mobile Games, there are a select few out there that are apparently things to experience, and luckily my purchase will allow me to do just that now.  I've had my eye on Star Wars:  Tiny Death Star since I heard about it, and I'm sure there are a few other games that I'll enjoy.  (I'm actually downloading EA's Theme Park as we speak I type now because I have fond memories of that game from the Genesis, and goddamnit, I need some management games in my life)  Scouring the free games, at least, should prove entertaining, and should I decide to browse the actual paid games (doubtful, my money is more than likely going to books first...aside from the ~$20 I spent on a case that will be shipped here Tuesday, apparently), well, there has to be -something- good there, yeah?  Should there be something, well, at least I have an outlet to inform others of as much.

Perhaps a little retail therapy, a little something that'll let me do a little more than I'm doing now, is just what the doctor ordered for my mood lately.  It's a bit early to tell, of course, but the old saying goes "Hope springs eternal" and it's definitely true.  Though "Hope and two quarters'll get you fifty cents" jumps to mind as well.  At least, I think that's how Sully says it.  I know leaning back in my chair and reading Blood Song filled me with a sense of "this is awesome" and "this is the fucking future" (because Star Trek, yes, that is me, I am that person) which is pleasant, and even now as it plays K-Pop through Pandora Radio next to me while I type this, I still steal glances at it in wonder and amusement.  I quite like it, I suppose is my point, and I can't wait to start getting a little more mileage out of it by binging on Netflix.  I've been meaning to watch Breaking Bad, after all...

seriously, the thing is Star Trek thin and I'm just like "yes yes yes, this is what I wanted when I watched the show as a kid"

No comments:

Post a Comment