http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php A current listing of cheap video games, video game sales and video game deals: CAG en Tue, 21 May 2013 11:24:38 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21586 Fri, 27 May 2011 18:46:28 GMT Let me first thank those of you who read (or read and commented on) my first blog. I was somewhat... Let me first thank those of you who read (or read and commented on) my first blog. I was somewhat surprised by the number of people who checked it out!

We went to see the house that I posted in the first blog. Yes... it's a gorgeous five bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home. It has hardwood floors, a half-finished basement, ceramic tile in the kitchen and a fireplace in the main living room. Again... huge, gorgeous home. Unfortunately, the previous owners were apparently the spawn of demons.

Something about books and their covers comes to mind.

From the looks of the outside (which you've likely seen), you'd hardly expect to walk into the remains of a biochemical fallout.

Looking in the windows, it appeared to be in need of some paint and a thorough hardwood floor cleaning, but those were minor fixes. Then... we walked inside. The first thing we noticed was the sickening odor of urine. So pungent that is actually smelled like a combination of urine, ammonia, and vinegar... but staler. Immediately after walking through the front door, I encountered the coat closet. I figured, "what the Hell" and opted to open the door. The closet was FULL of rat shit. Not just a little, but more like the entire area of the floor within the closet... covered.

Not good.

I was immediately turned off by the property, but decided to entertain the realtor (and myself) by glancing through the rest of the home.

As I'm sure you can imagine, there were countless additional issues with this home. The stove was intact, but was missing the door. The door leading to the basement was missing. The basement was Mold City, so bad that it was necessary to have a giant dehumidifier running around the clock. Whatever form of beast they had living in the home had chewed off any exposed corners of molding. The stairs leading to the second floor were dangerous. The upstairs was uninhabitable (so bad I can't even comment).

But the best surprise came when I entered the garage. There, spray-painted on the wall in scraggly handwriting was the phrase "kiss my lips" next to an amateurishly painted vagina. Amazing!

This house will never sell in this market. I actually criticized the realtor for having the nerve to actually show it to us. When we set up the viewing appointment, he assured us that he had been inside the property, and that it was "ready to move in to."

At one point during our walk-through, he made a point to show us how nice the cabinets are. "These are new maple cabinets" he said. I replied, "maple cabinets can't make up for the fact that it's difficult to breath in here, there's closets full of rat shit, and a giant pussy spray-painted on the wall."

He seemed offended.

There's no way in Hell that he had ever been in that house. Otherwise, he would have given us masks to wear before entering. After being inside for 10-15 minutes, I insisted that we go outside, as my nearly two-year-old daughter was persistently coughing.

For the home to be inhabitable, we figured it would cost nearly $80,000 to "renovate." The list price is currently at $260,000. This house won't sell for anything higher than $100,000. If I were a house flipper, and could get the home for $100k, then it might be worth it. Unfortunately, none of this is the case. I imagine they'll likely have to level the home... as I doubt anyone would be willing to dump the necessary money in order to make the home livable.

It was a disheartening experience, and has deterred our motivation to find a home. We are still toying with the prospect of building a new home, but for the cost of a small newly built home, you can find something twice the size already built. Frustrating.

So enough about houses. Haven't played any PS3 since my three hour experience with MAG. The other night, I spent three hours fixing my Apple TV 2. I jailbroke it several months ago, and everything had been working fine until I installed our new router. The Apple TV was in XBMC and couldn't escape to the main menu so I could enter the new network information. So I did a hard reset... and killed it. Black screen of death.

So I downloaded PuTTy and had to ssh into the device... in order to manually reprogram it. Only took an hour or so, and we were up and running.

The new router is simply awesome. D-Link dir-655 Xtreme N Wireless Gigabit Router... excellent investment. I'm now averaging speeds of approximately 13Mbps down/9Mbps up. Blistering fast... and we don't even have a high end internet package.

Last night my wife and I watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones. It's safe to say that we are totally addicted... as we become disappointed that we have to wait a week for the next episode.

My daughter received her school pictures the other day . She'll be 2 in just over a month. She is more popular at one year of age than I was my entire life. Added is the claim that her teachers make, stating that they've never seen a child of her age nearly as intelligent. It's truly frightening. seems that my wife and I need to brush up on the Jedi Mind Tricks before she becomes a teenager. I'd hate to be that dad who sits on the porch at night with a shotgun.

We'll be going to my parents home in Maryland for the Memorial Day weekend, so I won't likely blog again until Tuesday. Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend! Oh... and be safe. The cops are out in droves. ]]> metaphysicalstyles http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21586 http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21566 Wed, 25 May 2011 19:51:23 GMT I finally decided to take advantage of the CAG blogging capability.

Why?

I haven't a clue.

Perhaps I'll just use this blog to post pointless rants, and to provide a window into my daily life. Yeah... that's what these things are for.

And so it begins.

Here in approximately one hour, I'll be meeting with my wife to view a house that we may be interested in buying. We're first time home buyers... so this whole affair is completely foreign to us. We've pre-qualified for a mortgage, and are currently working with a handful of realtors. Everyone says "it's a buyers market," and this sounds promising. But when you've never purchased a home before, the phrase means very little. I wish it were as easy as buying a car.

I finally platinumed LittleBigPlanet, and am only one trophy away from platinum in LittleBigPlanet 2. After the PSN outage, I decided that I would no longer "hunt" trophies. Instead, I would opt to simply enjoy the game. With the exception of the LBP games, this stance holds true. Hence the reason I started playing the unplatinumable MAG. It's a pretty decent game... even though I'm currently more of a target than a threat. Without a single-player campaign, MAG appeals to me as a quick "fix" that I don't have to devote an increased amount of attention to. This is perfect for my currently busy work/home schedule.

I'll hopefully be receiving my D-Link DIS-655 Xtreme N Gigabit router in the mail today. My home is quickly resorting to a complete reliance on non-physical based media. I recently jailbroke my Apple TV2, and am looking forward to smooth streaming of HD quality content.

I believe that is all for now. Next time, I'll shed a little more light on my personal life. Who knows... maybe I'll make some friends (or enemies).

~ J ]]> metaphysicalstyles http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21566