blueZhift Blog

The last year has been a difficult one on many levels at home. So we’re rather glad to be seeing it off tonight! But there’s been a lot of good things in my life over the last year too, so I’ll just say a little thank you 2006 and good bye… Now please go 2006… no really…

Despite all of the trouble, my optimism remains, so I think that everything is going to be alright. Daijobu, daijobu, daijobu!

There’s a nice article on Kotaku today that details The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market. Long story short, there’s now a glut of Playstation 3s for sale on eBay going for just slightly over retail. Some who had hoped to profiteer from the PS3 are now returning them to the stores where they were bought. And PS3s seem to be staying on the shelf at retail a relatively long time. So what happened? Is the Playstation 3 dead?

There was a great outcry when the final price for the Playstation 3 was initially announced. For many, $600 is just too much to pay for a games console. Some argued, perhaps correctly, that $600 is a good value for what you get in the PS3. Still it appears that many consumers have decided they cannot afford that much value. Not only that, many decided that Nintendo’s Wii console at $250 was a much better deal and to date have bought over 3 million of them.

While I’m sure that the Xbox 360 probably benefited a bit from the scarcity of PS3′s and their high price, clearly the winner of the holidays console contest was the Wii. The geek in me wants to say that the Wii won because of innovative game play, fresh ideas, yadda, yadda, yadda. But the moms and dads buying Wiis don’t care about that geek stuff. To them, the Wii represented an exceptional value from a company that still has a lot of kid friendly cred. And the armies of so called casual gamers who cut their Nintendo teeth on the DS, probably didn’t hurt sales either. The choice was pretty simple, buy the $600 console that’s hard (or even dangerous) to get and comes with no packed in game, or buy the much less expensive $250 console that’s a lot easier to get without risking health or life, and comes with a nifty packed in game.

So what is Sony to do now? If it is true that Playstation 3 sales have plateaued this early, then clearly they will not be able to continue selling them for such a high price. And how long will 3rd parties wait before they abandon the platform for greener pastures? Will Sony wait until after the European launch in the spring before dropping the price? If things are really so bad, I don’t see how they can wait that long. There’s already news that Microsoft is preparing to move CPU production for the Xbox 360 to 65nm which ultimately means a less costly to manufacture console which would allow them to drop the price to compete better with the Wii. Lucky for Sony, the new Xbox 360 CPU has been delayed until mid 2007, but it is coming and could mean cheaper Xbox 360s in time for next Christmas. Can Sony really wait that long to drop the PS3 price?

The Escapist has a new article on crossdressing in MMORPGs, that is, playing as a character whose gender is opposite one’s own. It’s an interesting read, but doesn’t really have anything that hasn’t already been said in previous articles on the matter. Still, it is fun to get another person’s perspective and personal anecdotes or war stories.

As for me, I’ve been running around Vana’diel delivering virtual presents to virtual children while dressed as a virtual Santa, albeit a short, sexy, blonde Santa! Why bother? Well, for one thing, during the Starlight Festival, as it is called, these virtual Santa’s, the Smile Bringers, are allowed to freely teleport to and from any of the three starter cities in the game. The virtual world of Vana’diel is huge, so if you haven’t already seen the other starting cities, this is a great chance to do some virtual tourism while bringing smiles to the children of Vana’diel!

Soon I’ll return to the Lost Chocobo quest which has meant several long trips between San d’Oria and Jeuno. After that it’ll be time to find a good party for some serious leveling up on Qufim Island.

The cheapest Blu Ray player, the PS3 is hideously expensive and basically unavailable. While movies on Blu Ray are not is great abundance either. Is Blu Ray dead before it even starts. TripleII’s Top 5  Reasons Blu Ray Will Never Be In My Home makes some good arguments against the adoption of Blu Ray, at least by people who really think about these things.

Honestly, I don’t think most consumers think much about these types of decisions. The main things are going to be the cost of the players, what movies are available, and how going to Blu Ray, or HD-DVD for that matter, is better, tangibly better, than current DVD technology. Personally, I think both of these physical media types are dead in the water as far as movies are concerned. The future is shaping up to be downloadable digital, no media required. That’s why I’m not likely to buy movies in either of the new HD formats. I’m more interested in devices with big hard drives that are reasonably easy to use and simple, legal, ways of getting content. So I’ll be keeping an eye out for Apple’s iTV and may play a bit with MythTV. This should be fun!

Bumping about the forums on Cosplay.com I ran across this Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) thread, which, among other things had a link to the Lolita Handbook. Being a sucker for all things cute, I had to check it out. Very nice, and the illustrations are soooo kawaii! I make no apologies for liking cute things!

My youngest daughter is a very good student and, well, a bit of a smarty pants. She’s also very competitive and athletic, so it came as no surprise to us that she wants to cosplay Sasuke Uchiha from the Naruto anime series. And she really has a good look for it. So after buying the material weeks ago, I’m finally getting started on the project. Even though Anime Central is still 5 months away, I figured it would be a real morale booster for her if I get this done early. The only real trick here is making it big enough so that it will still fit well when she’s 5 months bigger!

After a long hiatus from sewing, it feels good to be able to just jump back in and know what to do. I only have two costume projects under my belt, with some measurements and a few models, it’s become pleasingly natural to just draw up a pattern. Heh heh, maybe I’ll be able to do that dream pair of Roger Smith and Dorothy after all!

Kids are amazingly resilient. A few months ago we had so much drama with our youngest one apparently having seizures and spending a few days in the hospital. Everything is back to normal now thankfully. But a few days ago we discovered the Seizure Monkey.

A stuffed monkey was part of the camp care package the kids got last summer. But we didn’t know that the monkey lets out a loud, freakish shriek when squeezed. It doesn’t sound like a normal monkey at all. So our imaginative offspring, unbeknown to us, have dubbed them Seizure Monkeys. It’s all very amusing to them, but it makes me laugh and shudder all at the same time when I remember what we’ve gone through. Oh well, life goes on, so I’m thankful for that!

So far, Christmas day has consisted of kids opening presents, and all being pleased, and just chilling at home. I got a cool iKaraoke for my iPod which I would be using right now, except my iPod is an old 3G model which won’t work with it… No worries, it’s a cool present from my wife, who isn’t really know for cool presents, so you know what that means! Time to upgrade my iPod! Yeah! Aren’t forced upgrades wonderful? Thank you Santa! Errr, I mean Jesus! No really…

Every Christmas, Santa will drop off a few gifts intended to be shared by the whole family. Usually, these consists of DVDs. This year, ol’ St. Nick got word that Card Captor Sakura was going out of print and found some great deals on the whole 18 volume set. So, I’ve been watching the extremely kawaii Sakura Kinomoto catch Clow cards for the last couple of hours and am jonesin’ for some more even as I write this. I don’t know how, but CLAMP and Madhouse have managed to encapsulate addictive cuteness into DVDs and sell it. No going back for me now!

Tomorrow is the day that many Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus, which we believe marks the entry of God into the world to effect reconciliation with humankind. But there are many, if not most, in the world who celebrate Christmas for largely secular reasons, it’s just plain fun!

The trappings of Christmas, the lights, trees, ornaments, and music, are a pleasure to behold. And the giving and getting of gifts is a lot of fun. I can think of no other holiday, celebrated anywhere on earth or in as many places that does the same. There are many Christians who lament the so called secular Christmas. But I think we should all rejoice instead because these Christmas celebrations around the world are a time when more people that any other time of the year stop a moment and really think about the other guy. Christians and non-Christians alike make an extra effort to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. And even though the holidays can also be a time of stress for many, on the whole I think the season raises the collective spirit of humankind.

Sometimes horribly irreverent thoughts stray into the mind. When I saw the news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his leg skiing, my first thought was, well I guess they’ll have to put him down! Isn’t that terrible!