HDTV

My current obsession right now is with an HDTV. I want one so badly right now. Watching the Superbowl (which is being held in my Hometown!) on a big High-Def screen would be great. With the release of the Xbox 360, the HD Gaming revolution is here. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 both use HD resolutions to enhance the graphics. You don't need an HDTV but the picture quality is greatly improved when you use it. HDTV's are great and I want one in my room. Only one problem. I lack the High-Def money (college is a bitch).

Entertainment. A Reflection of Popular Culture.

There have been several assumptions made in regards to entertainment as a whole. One of these assumptions is that it is a reflection of culture. This is entirely true. Forms of entertainment that may be popular in one culture are not as popular in another culture. In our culture, it is popular to For instance, in America, the sport of soccer is not nearly as popular as it is in say, Spain or certain regions of South America. Even the tastes in videogames differ from culture to culture. In another for instance, In Japan, First Person Shooters (my favorite videogame genre by the way) aren't very popular and here in the US they are some of the most popular videogames on the market.
I assume that entertainment is a reflection of popular culture because only those things that are popular to us sell well and keep us coming back. Soccer was never a really popular sport to Americans and thus, no one is tuning in to watch the big Soccer game on Sunday instead of Football. Football is popular in our culture and that's why it continues to thrive and merchandise related to it such as the Madden Football games fly off the shelves year after year.

The Future

When I think about the future I wonder what I’ll be doing. I have my own dreams and plans for the future but, before now, I never really thought about the future. I imagine in five years I will have graduated from college and will have a job working at a newspaper as a result of my degree in the field of journalism. In ten, I hope to be an accomplished writer, with at least one of my novels appearing on the New York Times Bestseller list. After this happens I guess I can devote myself to writing novels full time and writing a freelance column in a magazine or newspaper. Even now, I have a number of ideas for potential projects that I could write someday if I have the time so this reality is the best for me.

The Fast and the I'm Furious that i can't afford these cars!

I am really into cars. Ever since seeing the Fast and the Furious movie, I have been into the whole "tuner car culture". While at the moment I lack the funds to buy and tune the car(s) of my dreams, I know that someday I will. So below is a list of my 10 favorite cars. By the way, these are in no particular order. Well, except the Supra. That is my favorite car of all time.

1. 1998 Toyota Supra Twin-Turbo
2. 1997 McLaren F1 GT
3. 2006 Corvette Z06
4. 1998 Nissan Skyline R34 GTR
5. 1999 Lamborghini Diablo GT
6. 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe
7. 2003 Enzo Ferrari
8. Chrysler ME Four-Twelve Concept (Theoretically capable of 265 mph!)
9. 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago
10. Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren

This is a pic I took at my open house. 

This is a pic I took right after taking the first one. 

Xbox 360 vs PS3

Hey everybody, as I stated before in a previous post, I am a huge fan of videogaming and the console wars are heating up again for the "next-gen". Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you already know that Microsoft has already released its next-gen console known as the Xbox 360. If you know this then you probably know how hard it was to find this past holiday season. I wasn't lucky enough to find one before Christmas but my luck changed on New year's day when I finally got one of my own. The games I've played look incredible running on the system and they should considering the technology under the hood.
The Xbox360 is running a triple core CPU, each core running at 3.2 Ghz. This is significantly faster and more powerful than even some of the fastest gaming PC's on the market today as the fastest CPU available for PC's is a Dual-Core setup. Microsoft partnered with ATI to create the systems GPU or Graphics Processing Unit. This chip operates at 500 Mhz and is even more powerful than ATI's most powerful chip the Radeon X1800 XT.




To the right is Sony's upcoming contender in the console wars, the Playstation 3. Sony seems to think that the key to winning the console wars is power and the PS3 is no slouch in that department. Sony has even gone on record saying that their console is twice as powerful as the Xbox 360. These claims are supported by the fact that the PS3 has a seven(!) core CPU with each core running at 3.2 Ghz dubbed the "cell" by Sony. It is also powered by a 550 Mhz GPU, created by Nvidia and dubbes the RSX. The two of them claim that the chip is more powerful than Nvidia's current powerhouse, the 78oo GTX.

I will leave it up to you to decide which one is better, but personally, I give the edge to Microsoft in this console war. At the moment, the PS3 is scheduled for a Spring 2006 debut, but I don't believe this date will be met. At the moment, besides Metal Gear Solid 4, none of the PS3's big "games" have been shown running in real time on the PS3's hardware. They have all been shown as "visual target" demos.
The Xbox 360 is in my opinion the better system and I strongly believe that it has the best chance of winning the console wars. The games I've played have all been great, and have some of the best graphics I've ever seen on a console (just look up the game Project Gotham Racing 3 and take a look at some screen shots). Another advantage is Microsoft's unified online service called Xbox Live. This gives gamers a universal nickname friends list and more features than you'd find in Sony's online services.
I'll be back to add more on this later on so stay tuned.

First Entry

Hey everybody, as you may have guessed, this is the first entry into my new blog. First I'd thought I'd tell you a couple things about me. My real name is Justin McBride. I am eighteen years old and currently attending Wayne State University. This blog was actually created because of a school assignment. I plan on using this mainly for school and I will be updating at least three times a week.
One of my major interests that will be communicated through this blog is my interest in Videogames. I am a huge fan of videogames and just about everything related to videogames. While you won't see me dressing up as a characther from a videogame for halloween, (or...ever) I still consider myself a hardcore gamer.
Another of my various interests is writing. Writing has always come sort of naturally for me since the first grade when I had to write a short story for an assignment. After that, I began my long running "career" with writing. I may post a couple of my short stories from time to time if I feel like it.
Well, that's it for now, stay tuned later this week as I will be posting more of my thoughts about... whatever I want to talk about.