Xbox One vs. PS4 ... GO!

Mr. Dude used to have a collection of consoles.

When we got married, he had an original Xbox and a PS2.

Then came an Xbox 360.

Then, somehow, he weasled his way in to buying a PS3.

Mr. Dude: But, Stephanie, we need a BluRay player. The 360 doesn't have one.

Me: And why should I care about that?

Mr. Dude: Because this:

[Image via Amazon.com]

Mr. Dude: And because it's available on Amazon Prime. 

Me: Ooooooohhhhhh ... well that's different. Fine. Get the PS4. BUT! New rule. For every console you purchase, you must get rid of one from here on out. And, there must be some benefit to me, as well.

Mr. Dude: DONE!  

[BluRay comes in handy for all sorts of things like the LOTR Extended Edition Trilogy, the bonus features for Enchanted that aren't available on the DVD, Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth ... you know - the important stuff.]

Then sometime this year ... last year? ... [the timeline is foggy because we have so many discussions about what gadget he's going to buy next and why] ... he started musing on whether to get an Xbox One [which was confusing, because that's what we had been calling the original Xbox over here] or a PS4. Fortunately for him, he had already sold off the PS3 in favor of playing BluRays via his computer, so there was "room" for another console.

Want to see that conversation played out in real life? Here, we took video:

Okay, so really that's Sheldon and Amy from The Big Bang Theory. But you get the point.

I think I've mentioned before how it seems that the writers must just follow my life story for materials because I've had so many of the exact conversations that go on in that show.

It's getting kinda creepy, Chuck Lorre ...

Thankfully, we've put off buying anymore consoles for the time being. Mr. Dude believes that the consoles must be advanced enough technologically beyond the last generation to justify the price, so we're safe.

For at least the next five minutes.

Until he actually makes up his mind.

Stalking PAX Prime

Last night, I was all settled in for a lovely semi-marathon of BBC's London Hospital. Little Guy was down for the count. The house was reasonably clean. And Mr. Dude was out with friends to watch the new Captain America movie.

[As an aside, I was supposed to go to that movie, too, but we couldn't get a babysitter in time. So I couldn't watch the latest iteration in a never-ending parade of superhero/comic book-based movies. Oh darn.]

And then I get this text message:

Grammatical errors aside [because I'm one of those annoying people who try to make sure even my text messages have proper capitalization, punctuation, etc.], this pretty much sums up my weekend. 

Stalking PAX Prime tickets. 

Mr. Dude [who really is listed in my phone as "Yours Truly" ... and who chose a ridiculous profile picture based on a meme] knows that historically, PAX Prime tickets are announced very soon after PAX East in Boston has concluded. 

So the man who has a Twitter handle and never uses it turned on notifications for @Official_Pax a week ago to be sure he could rush to a computer at a moment's notice to get one of the coveted 4 Day Passes. Since PAX East was this weekend, there's been a tweet every. freakin'. 30. seconds.  

That's a lot of notifications on his phone, people. 

And a lot of times for my heart to start racing, waiting to hear him yell out, "To the interwebs!" 

And a lot of times of not knowing when I'm going to have to drop everything [except for maybe the 1 year old Little Guy ... I love my husband, but I draw the line there] to run to my computer and basically live out this scene: 

Key Difference that Mr. Dude would like you to note: They're trying to get into Comicon in San Diego. Not PAX. 

I actually offered [!!!] to go to Emerald City Comicon last month and he refused. 

Why?

"That's for a bunch of nerds, Stephanie."

Riiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhttttt ... 

[Updated: Apparently I should use the interwebs for some of my proofreading. You know, so that I can discover that it's spelled "Comicon" instead of "ComiCon" ... like I tried to do the first time around.] 

Overclocked ... Computer-Wise, Not the Schedule

Mr. Dude likes to tell me all the time about overclocking his Intel Core processor.

Apparently, after much tinkering, it's in a "sweet spot" right now - something like a 2.67Ghz running at 3.60Ghz.

I'm sure he'll correct me on the numbers later, but I get the basic concept. It's designed to run at such-and-such a speed, and he's running it a little bit harder without melting down.

Oh, and there's hyperthreading in there, too. Because why send a dotted -line stream of information, when you could make all those little computer brains send a solid-line stream of information and do so much more?

He gets really excited that he can run Crysis the way it was meant to be ("because the technology finally caught up with what the game developers had intended, Stephanie!"), or that he can run a really intense graphics program (read: "games", or "Netflix" ... you know, one of those) while simultaneously running Folding@Home on full-strength. All in the name of cancer research, you know. Or Parkinson's disease. I can't remember which project it is. But he's contributing the most "work units" to his group right now with all of his computing power. [He doesn't like me to remind him that he'd have even more "points" in the epic geek contest if he stayed off his computer and let it just run F@H.]

And RAM. Let's not forget the RAM. All 24GB of it. Oh, it's so lovely to run so many things without even needing the CPU or GPU.

And you'll never even hear it! Passive cooling + uber quiet fans + uber quiet power supply = optimized temperature and efficiency with very little noise to bother Mr. Dude's ears.

"Listen! Listen, Stephanie! You can't hear anything! The computer will always be the quietest piece of technology in our house. Isn't that awesome?!" 

Add in a sizable monitor with 1920x1080p resolution, an LED-lit keyboard, a gaming mouse, and a decent 2.1 sound system, and it's not a bad set-up, really.

Kind of reminds me of this scene:

For the record, Mr. Dude has actually set up infrared repeaters, fans and considered putting in a water cooling system to his computer.

Translation: The conversation the guys have amongst themselves has actually happened in our apartment. And it was just Mr. Dude talking to himself. The scary part is knowing most of what he's talking about ...

You know the best part about Mr. Dude's computer set up, though?

Commandeering it so I can open a simple web browser and a PDF viewer in order to complete some accounting projects for our home finances.

Oh, and run Pandora in the background.

Booyah.

Weekend Happenings: Tolkien, TNG and the Big Bang Theory

It's finally the end of Monday.

Monday took TWO cups of coffee for me to function like a semi-conscious human being, especially when Little Guy decided that 4:30 am and 5:30 am were good wake up times this weekend.

This morning, he actually let me sleep (mostly) till 6. It was heavenly.

Not to worry. Despite the crazy "let's pretend we're three time zones away" schedule, it was a fun weekend.

For one, I did this:

"Never laugh at live dragons!" - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Duly noted. 

while drinking this:

"Earl Grey. Hot ... Make it so." - Jean Luc Picard

I lucked out with a husband who says, "What can I do to help? Take Little Guy? Okay!"

I got an entire afternoon to sit and read The Hobbit and drink tea while he and Little Guy watched the Seahawks/Jaguars game upstairs with the neighbors.

And it was fantastic.

To be honest, I'm not sure if he likes hanging out with Little Guy more because he likes being a dad ... or because he likes having a legit excuse to act like a little kid. Either way, it's ridiculously fun to watch them giggle together.

Mr. Dude keeps telling me all the things he's going to do with our kids - play whiffle ball in the yard, go to the science center, play Mario Kart, build Lego sets.

I believe him, too, because those were a large part of his childhood and he loves any chance he can get to act on his nostalgia.

That being said, I should be on the lookout for hidden plans to build a treehouse, complete with acrylic window for a Star Trek-inspired clear screen thingy.

What on earth would you call those?

Not sure, but maybe you should ask these guys:

The Big Bang Theory as The Next Generation.
Source: The Official Star Trek Site

Mr. Dude has indulged me by watching all of Season 6 over the course of the last week. Big Bang Theory, that is. 

Not The Next Generation. 

We already did that. 

In fact, we've already watched The Original Series, The Next Generation AND Deep Space Nine. 

That's seventeen (17!) seasons, folks. 

Not episodes. Seasons. 

So when I reference Earl Grey and think of Picard, or when I see an episode of Big Bang Theory that has the main characters dress up as Data, Worf, Picard and the Borg ... I know what I'm talking about. 

The irony? 

Watching The Big Bang Theory counts toward the seasons Mr. Dude "owes" me since I watched SEVENTEEN (17!) seasons of one of his shows. 

He's now seen SIX full seasons of Big Bang Theory and THREE full seasons of Downton Abbey. 

He'd like to claim that each season of Downton should really count as 2, and that he should be off the hook for anymore since last season was such a heartbreaker. 

And then I remind him that 6 + 3 = 9. 

He's still short by 8 seasons. 

So ... Casa de Nerds has a standing 8 pm Thursday date to watch Season 7 of Big Bang Theory (aka, laugh at the nerds) starting this week. And there will be a standing 8 pm Sunday date to watch Downton, starting in January, no matter how many times he protests. Even then, he's still got 6 more seasons of my choice to go ... 

Muahahaha!