So I've been trying to clear up some backlog. Right now it stands at at 233 games, 152 of which I have never even played. My goal for the year has been to get it under 200. (It was around 260). So far I have managed that by cutting down my buying. This has meant turning down tempting deals and refocusing on games that have sat on the shelf.

It has reached the point however, where I did start wondering if I really don't feel like playing that game maybe it is finally time to get rid of it. If gamestop still took them I know I would be minus some ps 1 & 2 games. My old PC games make up the majority of my backlog though. So I have been going through them. I found a few I didn't care for or feel any desire to play that I gave to my son to try on his laptop. A few more surprised me and I will probably get to next. That still leaves a lot.

I figured some of these old dos games would probably be unplayable and could be set aside. A couple, Wake of...

Some end of the year stats:

New Games: 248
Games Beaten: 208
# of the above 100% Complete: 128
Games sold, given away, trashed, deleted: 34
Net progress: -40

First game Beaten: Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (NDS) on 1/1/11
Last Game Beaten: Dead Space (iPhone) on 12/29/11

Total Games: 1333
Games I still need to beat: 265
# of the above I have not played at all: 185

Okay I get it. No one gives a . I'll stop posting.
I had hoped maybe people would be interested, and/or have some advice on what I could do, but meh.
I guess this was the wrong site for this, but cheapass gamer is the only place I ever go online anymore.
I should probably stop wasting time when I could be studying anyway.

Sorry if I sound like a whiny bitch, down on a few things.
Back to lurking for me.

The one early success in my All-in-One plan is the Pulse app.
With my time being eroded by grad school, I have found this a great time saver.
I find all the sites I want to be kept up to date on, and add their RSS to google reader.
I make feeds for all the sites that lack one with feed43.
Then Pulse keeps me up to date.
It does facebook too, but no twitter. If I could figure how to add that I would be ecstatic.
Now I need something for video. Downcast seems to work great for actual audio, and video feeds, but I would like to be able to add youtube channels for example, and I don't have the time to mess with yahoo pipes right now.
So this might just be on the backburner for awhile. It's driving me nuts though. So close.

Even though it seems I'm speaking to my self...
I thought I'd put my note of the things I need my iPhone to do.
It will probably change over time, but this is where I'm at now.
And yes I know some of this functionality is built in


Minimal number of apps. Unified platform.
Don't depend upon connection.
Don't need to sync.

1. Organizer
   • Contacts
   • Schedule
   • Calender
   • Email
   • Notes- Evernote
   • To Do List
   • Call List
   • Shopping List
   • Meal Planner
2. Media
   • Audibooks -Audible
   • Podcasts- Downcast
   • Video
   • Music
   • Radio
   • News Reader- Pulse
   • Bookmark Manager-Read it Later
3. Household
   • Medical Records
   • Car Maintenance
   • Home Maintenance
   • Money Manager
   • File Manager
   • Inventory
   • Scrapbook
4. School
   • Class Planner
   • LaTeX
   • Programming
   • Thought Web

The first phase was:

Dropbox, DocsToGo Premium, iZip - I acquired these to hand a specific situation. They probably aren't critical, but I kept them just in case.

DropBox is very handy, but I'm not sure I'd die without the app. My iPhone use of DropBox is limited to looking up PDFs or Doc files for reference.

DocsToGo then allows me to make simple corrections, or changes.

iZip allowed me to unzip one file, and I've never needed it since. But It is there in case.

I love DropBox, and use it to upload between home and school, but I just find the iPhone uses limited.

My most common use of this combo is dealing with email attachments. I had used this to make notes, but I recently started using Evernote instead. I find that much simpler and quicker. Though I'm still finding the limits of this apps, and trying to see how to maximize its use.

I like Evernote. It beats Apple's note app, and...

I should mention my general situation:
I have a windows computer.
I have only my iPhone on work.
I use Ubuntu machines at school.
I lose 3G on my way home, but have good service otherwise.


So my solutions generally need to be multi-platform, and connection can be an issue.

So despite my tiring with my iPhone as a gaming platform, and my near breakdown from loss of data, I have being trying to make more productive use of it. I started grad school in Aug., and have been trying to get organized. My dream would be to use my iPhone for everything, thus greatly simplifying my life. Probably unrealistic, but we should all have impossible dreams.

Here is what I've got going so far:
Audible- I have a good drive, and my part time job lets me listen to my iPhone so this has been on my iPhone since the app was first released. I don't use it constantly anymore, (I'm usually am behind on podcasts.) but it is great when the "reading" mood strikes. Class means all my time I could actually devote to a book is usually taken.

Read It Later- I use it to mark all those links I don't have time for right now. Those first two are apps I have used for a long time, and therefore before I set out to maximize my iPhone's potential,...

So today was not a good technology day. My printer refused to print correctly no matter how many times I cleaned the heads. Then my DS decided to lock up right after I beat the level of the game I was playing. Of course I was just playing to pass the time while my iPhone was updating.

If you guessed it that it then decided it was corrupted and needed to revert to factory settings you win a prize. I've spent an hour recovering what I can and loading music, books and apps back on it. The default apps are there with all their settings and info, but everything else is gone.

My bookmarks and badges for audible, I guess I don't need those. The games I'd been playing on and off for 6 months and had almost beat, I guess I didn't want to finish those. My settings for any of the hundred others apps I didn't want those did I? So what if you supposedly backed up your phone before updating.

i just starting going through and deleted...

I think iPhone gaming has finally lost its glow for me. While I still find an gem here and there, for the most part the sameness has left me a bit jaded. I think most iOS games can be grouped in a few types. We have the tower defense game, the flight control clones, the twin stick shooters, canabalt clones and of course the match 3.

While occasionally a game will bring a new twist, the changes are usually only cosmetic. I believe 90% of the games could be distilled into 10 or fewer categories, and the nature of the app store makes it hard to find anything but chaff.

When I first got my iPhone I downloaded anything free I could. After a few months, it had to seem unique or intriguing too. Now a reasonable price isn't an issue but the game needs to have good reviews, be unique, and personally appealing. I will also admit having a preference to games with an end. If there isn't an ultimate goal I either lose interest or set one of my own. And I'm a sucker for...

So I have been without my pc or consoles for about a month now. They, along with most my other stuff, are in storage while we moved cross country and purchased a house. Unfortunately, I will probably be without for a few more weeks. So it has been all DS and iPhone for me.

Luckily I have a significant ds backlog, and a good carying case. Plus free or $.99 iphone games are everywhere, of course most of those just serve as sacks between DS sessions.

Right before Christmas, my computer got a virus. I spent some time working on it, but eventually decided since I had recent backups it would be easier to format and start over.

A few months later, I finally had time to finish up Oblivion and started to reinstall the game.

I had my oblivion save files, however I apparently at some point accidentally deleted my off plug-ins from the backup drive. Oh well, no big deal. I figured I'd just re-download them. Well this was no problem for the unofficial ones, but the Oblivion download site was temporarily down. I figure I'd just have to wait a little while.

Three months later the site was still down. I had already tried running the game without the plug ins, and my save games just crashed. And having put over 170 hours into the game, I was not going to start over.

So I contacted support and after a little back and forth they very graciously sent me all the plug-ins I had bought. Now here is...

I was driving home today listening to Weezer's Blue Album, which is one of my favorite cd's. While I do have favorite songs, I can listen to the whole thing from start to finish and never skip a song. All the songs are good and enjoyable.

When I was younger I had a rule. A cd must have 3 good songs on it before I would buy it. Now this was the 90's, before the internet and mp3s, when cd's cost $19.99. A single cost $4.99. So I'm sure everyone can understand the math involved. (Though I never ever actually bought a single.) Occasionally I broke this rule for a song or two I just really liked, but usually ended up disappointed.

So me with my very limited budget always hoped for those perfect cd's I could listen to over and over. While I think everyone has their guilty pleasures (and I personally have a fondness for the unique and unusual. A trait that may be noticed in my game collection.), There are some albums that are just great and have stood the test...

I just finished a complete play through of TWEWY. Normally I'm a beat a game and move on type of person. If I did everything great, but if not beating the game removes any motivation to keep playing.

With TWEWY I could not stop playing; I found every item, mastered every pin, got every drop on all four difficulty levels, found every secret report. Hell I even beat the time attack on all four difficulty levels.

I suppose I could still max out all the characters stats, but considering I can already beat every noise(the monsters) on ultimate difficulty; (Only the hardest boss even presents a challenge) I'm not sure what the point would be.

So what did I like about the game. Well really just about everything , but there are a few things I particularly liked. The fact that the game lets you retry almost every battle if you lose, and even lower the difficulty to easy if you are in over your head. The fact that there are only a handful of random encounters....