So much has happened over the last two weeks that I hope I jam it all into this post without having to edit it!
The drive to San Antonio was as usual uneventful. Podcasts kept me awake and lively for the duration but I realize that the TWiT broadcasts probably border on too long. The Blizzard podcast has the perfect length of time almost before I get bored. I’d say for me personally, about an hour is my limit.
My Thanksgiving break was short and I was honestly kind of out of it. It was one of those vacations where I simply tuned out and needed rest. This was at the expense of actually hanging out with the family. So this time going down I was more focused on knocking out Rock Band 2 achievements and spending time and doing things with them.
My first day we killed Rock Band 2. Knocked out a ton of achievements and played until we were sick of the last tier of songs. I think if I have a gripe with Rock Band 2, it’s that the challenges are so static amid an ever changing library. Instead of Painkiller/Panic Attack/etc for the last set every time, it should know based on difficulty rating of other songs you have bought to swap things up. It was great and it wore us out for Christmas the next day. Well, it wore me out anyway.
This year I think they let me sleep in actually. I feel like I woke up at 7 or 7:30 and they usually have me up at 6 or something crazy. When I was a kid I had to wait patiently for my Dad to wake up before I could tear into things. We had a ritual actually. We had to get the fireplace started, get coffee, be somewhat presentable for him to record Christmas on the camcorder, THEN I could tear into presents. However, now it’s like “Is Tim up?” Although I know the stark contrast to the old days is that my Dad now works a night shift so he’s actually awake during this time anyway and it’s really us that hold up the whole situation.
When I go home, I’m actually surprised to find gifts for me since I’m old enough not to be considered a part of the household. But it’s really heart warming to see my little brother and sister have taken time out to get me something.
The Loot:
- Mom/Older Sister: Western Digital 500GB Passport external hard drive
- Brother: Travel bag (the kind you’d put your toothbrush/razor in)
- Younger Sister: Shirt
- Aunt: 2 liter Pampered Chef pot
- Uncle: Long sleeve shirt
So the hugely cool gift they got me, which really is very cool since I did comment last time I was down there that I needed another drive, was the external hard drive. It’s so small and awesome. My younger sibling gifts were also pretty great as far as something I needed (from my brother) and something I’d wear (from my sister).
My aunt has this trend of getting me kitchen stuff which is always great. Before she’d jump from clothes to cologne to totally random stuff. Then she got me a set of pots and asked me what I thought of them and I said I loved them. Since then she’s very consistently gotten me great kitchen stuff.
My uncle without fail has gotten me clothes, but sometimes surprising because it’ll be family related like something relating to Indiana, but this year it was a standardized gift. Our family is pretty big to shop for (3 kids and 2 adults) and so it goes back to the surprise of seeing any gifts for me at all to see that he’s still mindful enough to get me something.
The kids got a 160GB Playstation 3 and with it, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and Uncharted. My sister said that my brother had been into the zombie shooters, so I figured Bioshock would be great considering they already got him CoD4. However, I realize now that it’s a bit too scary for him and so he hasn’t even started a game yet, but he watches his oldest sister play it for him. When we’re all huddled around the TV we have a sort of narration that cuts into the mood so we’re not all at the edge of our seats sometimes when playing games. But playing alone is probably too immersive.
GT5P unfortunately is probably too small a snippet and lacking some of the key features my Dad probably really loves about the series. The shame of it is I thought the full game would be out this year, but it may be pushed back to 2010 according to Wiki. Last I heard he had basically played all the tracks and bought some of the most incredible cars already. I hope the last saving grace is the online play but to my knowledge he’s never played anything online and playing a game like that which is full of computer controlled cars vs other people like him who sort of abuse the collision mechanics might not be appealing to him. It should be interesting to hear his feedback on it though.
I watched my brother play a large portion of CoD4 and yes, it really was awesome. I think the coolest level was going through the past Chernobyl. My brother plowed through it but I was eager to see how he’d play online since he plays very well against an easy computer and sort of knows the tricks to playing against a scripted enemy. Of course, he was terrible at first, but by the time I left, every game he left he was in the top 3 if not top spot for his team.
Over the course of 3 years, my parent’s house has truly evolved to modern day living. The only cool thing before this was that they had cable tv. Now they have a computer for every family member, huge HDTV, Wii, and a PS3. My main gripe now is that while they have “high speed” net access. The truth is they have the lowest tier DSL package which is unbearable. The max download speed is like 60 or 70KBPS. Turning on the PS3 and seeing that it needed updates for nearly every game in the sizes of 200MB was a heart breaker. It was confusing to my parents who thought it was broken and needed fixing.
Speaking of broken and needed fixing, I have basically a travel kit for my 360. It consists of an ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, and all the rest of the Rock Band stuff I don’t normally use like the mic and the hub. Plugging in the PS3 using it’s composite cable on the nice big HDTV seemed like a slap in the face, so I used my HDMI cable. I was thinking that I should probably buy them an HDMI cable since going to a physical store will only get you some massively overpriced thing. If you don’t know, HDMI is a digital signal and as such, doesn’t require fancy gold plating or anything like that. The cheapest HDMI cable should still give you a great picture. Anyway, I never got the cable, and as such, we spent the week swapping the HDMI between consoles.
One day though, my Dad is up at 8AM wanting to play GT5P but for some crazy reason the TV doesn’t like the input. I go down, and in his frustration he’s plugged in both HDMI and composite. Interestingly, neither of those inputs had a picture. After many resets and plugging in and unplugging things, it finally worked. However the time I spent doing it, my Dad is getting increasingly angry at this broken thing he’s bought. I thought he’s going to be fairly angry if I leave with the HDMI and they don’t have one, so I ended up leaving it and now have to order myself a new one. Not a big deal, but I’m temporarily unable to take my 360 anywhere. Well I could take it, but unhooking the component cables from my TV is painful and annoying, which is why I opted for the spare HDMI cable.
Ok so now when I visit San Antonio I try to make a point to eat somewhere cool that I either don’t have or that’s a local dive that people rave about. Though less of the second item, I usually end up at nicer places that facilitate the young taste buds of my brother who’s diet is mostly anything with cheese or anything that tastes like chicken. My visit this time took us to Macaroni Grill (kind of a staple it feels like), McAlister’s (to introduce them to quality tea), Culver’s (because who doesn’t want to try something called a butterburger), and Carino’s.
Carino’s we have in Lubbock which fits none of my main topics for eating out in San Antonio. But it was late, on the fly, and close. The problem with Carino’s though in San Antonio and not in Lubbock, is that the last 2 times I’ve been there, this time included, it’s like we get seated in an area where the waiter has no idea where we are. So we wait for 10 minutes before anyone even comes by! In Lubbock, the service is great though. Ah well.
Culver’s wasn’t anything fancy unfortunately. The burgers were alright. I feel like if they did something like toast the bun or something, then it would be awesome. I think only my Mom noted that McAlister’s tea was great and that it was just tea to everyone else. Macaroni Grill was interesting because out of the blue, my little brother gets handed to him a sundae out of the blue that didn’t appear on the check. So random and so funny as he looks at me, I shrug my shoulders, and he tears into it.
That wraps up the bulk of my trip but not all of it. I went to Houston and had car repair troubles which actually isn’t what you think it means after hearing that, also I bought Left 4 Dead and a pur water dispenser.
