Shard Two - The Voice of God (is played by Hideo Kojima)

Alright. Let's get this show off the ground, shall we.

For those of you who might not be big gamers, let me explain a bit of the title. Hideo Kojima is the man behind the Metal Gear Solid game series.
It's also quite possible that Hideo Kojima is a God.

What now? You're even more confused? Let me explain the scenario yet again.
Alright. Just recently (a few days ago, now), I finished Metal Gear Solid 4. And all said and done? It's the best movie I've ever played. Sure, it's technically not a movie, but Hideo's storytelling doesn't seem to know the difference. I actually had to sit through a single cutscene sequence that took fifty minutes, and the ending cutscenes? That took somewhere around two hours, I think. (I lost track of time.) And I was glued to the screen for the entirety.
Took twenty hours to finish the game, and I played fast, too. No dawdling about, and didn't die that often either. The game's just that long. And I'm looking forward to playing it again, now.

I really could go on and on about the story, but I would have to stick so many spoiler warnings throughout... I'm just not in the mood to do that right now. Really, if you own a PS3. Get. This. Game.

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But as always, I have more then one topic to cover! One good one, one bad. Pick one...
...
...
...Hmm, really? But I'm afraid that wasn't one of the choices... did I not mention what the options were? Whatever. No time to spell it out for you. We'll just start with the good news.

That would be music. As many of you rabid fans already know, I really enjoy music. (If you're not a rabid fan of me, that's fine, just don't ruin the mood in here.) My mother actually turned me on to this site... Pandora radio. It's quite awesome; you need to make an account to use it (simple setup, happily), but once you get it running, it's great.
The link there leads to my profile page; you can see there's an ability to bookmark songs and artists (a feature I've already made use of), and what's that there? Right on the left side! A radio station. Go ahead, click on it. It's fine, I give you full permission to touch my stuff. (for you lazy people who didn't click the first link, or perhaps people who couldn't get the link to work, here's the station.)
I've been listening to my station almost non-stop now. It quickly evolved past the point of needing to skip tracks, and now just keeps playing great song after awesome song.

...
But that's the good news down. Now you've got to deal with the bad news. (Not my fault you had to go and save the bad news for last.)
Alright, this is more bad news for me then for you, but by extension, it evens out. My laptop is dying.
It's a convertible tablet/notebook computer; a Gateway, I forget the exact model number. Not super powerful, but just powerful enough to run just about everything I use regularly (Photoshop CS, DAZ|Studio, and even Guild Wars). The screen tablet is - was - of indispensable use to my artistic needs. Sadly, the pressure sensitivity never worked with Photoshop (it's not a WACOM tablet), but that actually didn't bother me much (since I was too happy with the ability to draw on the screen).
But the weak point with every convertible tablet/notebook PC is the swivel joint for the screen. That's what allows the screen to flip up, rotate, and fold down into tablet PC mode. It's been getting a little wiggly for months now, but it reached it's limits just today, I'd say. Depending on the angle you keep it at, it sometimes has trouble holding the screen upright, and it gained the unsavory ability to shut the entire computer down whenever it likes (probably due to the fact that there's a power button in the screen frame).
Needless to say, that pretty much spells doom for my laptop. It still works, mind you, but it occasionally turns itself off now (not to helpful if I'm working on, well, anything). The tablet function isn't doing so hot either. Luckily, it's not my only option; my desktop computer is still much more powerful, and I do have a "normal" digitizer tablet (this one, a real WACOM, although it's not built-in to the screen). But I really do love using my laptop... despite it's shortcomings. I'm afraid to use it now, for fear of killing it completely.

There's just about nothing I can do on my laptop I can't do on my desktop, so it's not a complete loss. But the ability to sit in bed and draw is one I shall sorely miss.
I'm already working on a replacement; I'm quite short on cash, sadly, but I've been needing to get a job anyway. And I hope to get a decent Mac laptop, this time. I've never used a Mac, being a big gamer; most games run either better or easier on a PC. But since my laptop is pretty much exclusively for art and media (not to mention, blogging from bed), a Mac seems to be a perfect fit. I just need to find one I can afford now.

...Oh, right. And one more complication. Getting a Mac means no built-in tablets. Apple doesn't make any tablet computers, period. Not yet, at the very least. I'm not quite up to the task of modding one myself, and the price tag on the ModBook is quite hefty, even at the low end. (I still really want one though, looking at the stats makes me cry a little. In a good way.)

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Parting thoughts:
*Metal Gear Solid 4 is reason enough to get a PS3.
*a PS3 is reason enough to buy Metal Gear Solid 4.
*Metal Gear Solid Online (the online multiplayer part of MGS4) is awesome, although the initial account creation will make you want to find your nearest male Konami employee and kick them in the groin multiple times.
*Pandora Radio is awesome.
*Convertible tablet notebooks, not so much. (awesome at first, yes, but no fun when they eventually break.)

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