Skype and me

As an introvert, I make plenty of efforts not to be noticed.

Honestly, I prefer to be ignored by the general public because talking to them is a grueling task.

I come off as rude at times, I know, but they are just not aware that at most, I have no idea how to respond so I end up not responding at all.

One of the "I don't know how to respond to that" instances are when people greet me on my birthday. It is just a very awkward encounter for me that I have gone to great length to delete any way people will get notified of my birthday.

I have removed my date of birth from my Facebook page, as an example. I have told my agents that I don't celebrate my birthday and would prefer that they don't broadcast it if they ever knew when.

And then there's Skype. If I can only stop using it, I would; but I use it at work. I don't know who developed Skype but I bet they like to be greeted on their birthday and assumed everyone else in the world likes the attention.

You see, you can't hide your birthday from all your contacts at Skype. Not only can't you hide it. Skype makes it impossible for them to ignore your birthday by notifying them with an automated message. You can't even change it to the wrong date, because if you forgot to change it to a much later date, people will not greet you at the wrong date, which is more embarrassing to both greeter and you.

I hate you, Skype. If I had a choice, I will never use you again.

Alternative to Google for specific information

Google is a big help, but sometimes, no matter what keywords you use, you can't find the right information you need. It happens, no matter what specific keywords you use, the topic you are researching might have too common words to find good results.

So what do you do when Google just isn't cutting it? You find a topic specific forum/board. Want to know something about a specific aspect of a computer that's hard to explain to google? Talk to a human on a computer-related board. You might be surprise to know how very knowledgeable, technical and eager to help these people are on forums.

Google might misunderstood your query, but a forum member will know what you are talking about, and even if you're question is confusing, you can explain it in more details to get the message across.

The first time I joined a forum was for a different reason. I just learned touch typing and I needed a medium to practice it more till I became comfortable enough. So I joined the now defunct One Manga Forums. 

I learned plenty from OM that casual Manga readers don't even know. For example is that there's no releases on a certain holiday in Japan, Categories and sub categories and what suits you. What goes into making a manga like assistants, Mangaka's (that's what they call Manga authors/creators) health affecting the artwork and production of a certain manga, who dead, dying, and died. The politics that went into what Manga gets published from what gets cut.

Another benefit you get from forums, specially if the forum is localized geographically is that forum members might know where you can locate a specialized vendor selling an item cheaper. For this my example is PinoyPS, a forum for Playstation fans and enthusiast. Members recommended (without even me asking) an online vendor that sells PSN cards cheap. I wouldn't have found it on my own, and even if I did, I would have considered it a scam for selling it so cheap. But it was mentioned and recommended repeatedly by different members. There's the risk, but can't go wrong when alot of people are recommending it.

So in need of answers, information, technical help, cheaper parts, trusted online vendors? Look for the right forum. Knowledge is power and people in forums love to empower people.

A post that is not about the Playstation 4

So yeah, I guess I'm back to blogging but I'll be releasing posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only...

No, it has nothing to do with me buying a Playstation 4 a couple of weeks ago (Well, maybe a bit. still awesome, though) but it has something to do with not having much ideas for topics (because, yeah, you can't think of anything else when gaming... so... ok, it might have something a bit more to do with the PS4..)

Okay, goddamit.. Let talk about my PS4. ;)

I bought it when I learned about the new update for the PS4, codenamed "Yukimura". It has a feature that caught my attention so I just went along and bought it the next day. To be specific, Yukumura features a button assignment configuration. In short, button X can be square, if you want it to be.

If you read my previous post. You can tell that I do not love the Asian button configuration where Circle is "Confirm" and X is "Cancel" because Region 1/US games uses the opposite; X is "Confirm", Circle is "Cancel."

It can be confusing.

Now, that is the only reason why I went ahead and bought a PS4 the next day Yukimura was released. Though thinking about it now, I should have done a bit more research first.

Apparently, the button configuration doesn't just work on the PS4 home screen, it works though all the games.. through all my Region 1 games.. Meaning I have to turn off the Button assignment once I'm actually playing the game, unless I want to use Asian button configurations on my US games. Somewhat pointless, so I opted to turn that setting off. *Shrugs*

Still.. Playing Borderlands 2 on a bigger screen is much much better after being wow'ed by it on my Playstation Vita. Cross-saving Borderlands 2 between PS4 and Vita is kinda-crappy though, they should fix that.

Among other thing whilst tinkering with the unit. I learned that I can use my Sony TV remote to control navigation of the PS4's home menus. You can also setup the TV to automatically turn on when you turn on the PS4. Kinda neat features, if you ask me.

So yeah, I think building that dream PC might take a while more than I figured.

PC build and frustration

I have high standards for myself. At times it's good because there's a level of quality; at times it's more of a road to heartaches since my wallet can't reach that certain level of quality.

So there I was, thinking of building a gaming PC from scratch. Checked the parts I want, researched it to make sure it is what a really want, compared it so I don't have doubts, read all the pros and cons of the specific parts. In short, all the extensive routine I usually do when I want to buy a piece of technology (Believe me, every piece, even the thermal paste, has been exhaustively researched.)

Looking at the final build, it hit me that I might never see the PC I wanted to have just because I have no sense of compromise when it comes to quality. The final build costs around $1500.

Can I settle for some cheaper parts? Maybe, but I'm certain that knowledge that I've lowered my standard will nag my subconscious. Can I save long enough to buy the parts? I don't know, I am an impatient man.

What is a guy like me to do?

Idea brainstorm!

I suggested that in order to eliminate the hassle of choosing what clothes to wear to work every morning, I should just buy fifteen pieces of the same shirt.. and voila!, no more time wasted choosing what to wear.

My wife turned it down, vehemently. Said people will think that she's not taking care of her husband if they saw me wearing the same clothes all the time.

Sometimes, being married sucks..