Superheroes, PC Geek Hero, Hero Phones, and Tech News Heroes

No superhero movies this month. Inhumans doesn’t count, and the bad reviews make it an easy exclusion from the MCU experience. The Arrowverse shows are showing in less than 2 weeks from now as well as Agents of SHIELD so that’s gonna be filler enough until Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League arrive in November.

Mhae and I got to see Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2 this month on the laptop and I think we’re on track in our preparation for December’s Episode 8. We have Episodes 3, 6, and 7 left.

Found some time to play NFS Most Wanted (2012) and finally enjoyed the gaming PC nature of my PC. I still have to figure out why the hangs. And that didn’t last long.

Before the month ended, I got triggered by a post from a friend asking for advice between a gaming laptop and a gaming desktop. There were actual answers of a gaming laptop, and none about ryzen. Naturally, I had a couple of ellaborate comments and I’m happy he’s now choosing between a gaming pc or an xbox one x. PCMR in me is actually less concerned about an xbox one x for gaming than a gaming laptop. One thing I found out in doing research, though—the geforce 10 series mobile parts are actually decent compared to all previous and even amd’s current mobile graphics parts. As for the intel core i7’s for “mobile gaming”, still not so sure.

The Note 8 and iPhones 8, 8 Plus, and X (ten) were released this month. Meh. What’s a big deal for me is the realization that the Xperia XZ1 Compact won’t be officially available here in the Philippines. I’m now looking for alternative phones to buy or considering getting the XZ1c from unofficial channels. Incidentally, my old Z1compact automatically updated a google service and did that restarting thing again. I got to fix it by doing the clear data trick but since some google account settings were also reset, some apps got to update themselves. At any rate, it’s been running fine since that mishap.

I’ve been experimenting with other audio recorders because audio recording is one of the two things I’m unsatisfied with with my current, supposedly temporary phone, the XA1. The second one of course is the size. I proved myself right in my clumsiness and real need for handy phones and extended warranties when I dropped my XA1 on a stair step at the office entrance one night. Amazingly, it falling flat on its back, the phone doesn’t seem to be damaged. Thank God, really.

Lastly apparently, the changes in NCIX Tech Tips are bigger than I thought with only one host left. I sure hope for the best. They, along with Linus, are my current tech heroes, quite the same way Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton were back in the TechTV days.

Quick Geek Bits Again for August

Live-action comics, computers, cellphones, some movies.

Marvel’s the Defenders was fun and filled that long weekend (1 of 3) well.

First time to test a UPS and I was genuinely excited and thought—why didn’t we got one until now?

Got lots of usb type-C cables and adapters (and bent one already) as the month started. By the end of the month, got news at last of a new Xperia Compact. Hoping it lands here on the Philppines, this time.

On local cinema, saw 100 Tula Para kay Stella. Not bad. On international films, got to catch up on 3(?) recent action films—John Wick, F8, Logan. Really good ones.

Xperience and Red Team Resurgence

I did have a lot to blog about but I got to procrastinate a bit more this month. Two things are highlighted, though.

Xperia

As my Z1 Compact failed late last month, I was bound to get a temporary replacement until a new xperia compact gets released later this year (hopefully). I got myself an Xperia XA1 and a new SBH70 bluetooth headset. I’d also like to mention that I got Mhae a much less expensive wireless headphones—Soundbytes HBS-800. The transistion between phones was not the smoothest because of the proble with the Z1 Compact. Amazinly, I found out that it was in one of the non-default apps and I got to get the phone running as I wanted after a good number backup and restore schemes. i should detail this someday for reference.

AMD

Of the geek stuff I follow, AMD releases probably got the most completion before this month ended—others being Transformers, James Bond, comic book shows and movies. Kinda sucks, though, how the new Ryzen 7 pc at work got pulled out for service due to a faulty power supply. As for my Ryzen 5, I hope it keeps running this well. Anyways, props to AMD for their Ryzen 3, RX Vega, and Ryzen Threadripper releases/unveilings/announcements.

Wonder Woman, Agents of SHIELD, Megatron, and Ryzen

Wonder Woman was a great movie. It wasn’t simply a good female superhero movie; it was a good superhero movie. And it wasn’t simply a good superhero movie; it was a good movie.

Finally completed Agents of SHIELD Season 4 and it wasn’t bad at all. It gave a warm feeling to have some characters a sense of closure, albeit being simulations. The threat of the last 3^rd of the season was quite grand and the return of Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider for the finale was spectacular, tying in really well the first part of the season. And speaking of the first part, its relation to the cancelled Agent Carter felt good. Back to the ending, the (not so) subtle relation established to Dr. Strange was a grand bonus.

The Megatron Chronicles DotM/G1 2-pack colors weren’t as I hoped, but both look better from afar and in pictures. It’s still a very satisfying get—finally having a DOTM and a G1 Megatron to display against my Optimus Primes. G1’s robot mode is a challenge to pose but transformation is really great and certainly much more enjoyable than Optimus Prime’s. Voyager class DotM Megatron is probably the best of the 4 when it comes to articulation, and like their G1 counterparts, the transformation is more enjoyable, though not by so much.

So far, the new PC is running really well. I’m settling with this config for now and will think about the red fan and front panel card reader and USB 3.0 port some other time. I’m well decided on not getting an aftermarket cooler given that the stock cooler runs as quiet as my CoolerMaster V8 did, and I’m not planning on overclocking. Probably the best thing that happened to the PC is the reactivation of Windows. It was also an almost effortless task to have the reactivation problem fixed via Microsoft’s Chat Support.

Quite amazingly, this month has a good number of geekery updates. Even more amazing, is that I got to take note of them. I’m cutting this for now and hopefully find the time these coming days continue on the updates.

Oh, and it’s amazing that I’m using Open Live Writer now. Using a blogging client is really better.

Open Live Writer

Testing this to replace Windows Live Writer. Hoping the link to Blogger is ok.

Build-up to Completion

On phones

Quickly… Galaxy S8/S8+ and HTC U11 are out. Dara got herself an S8+. Long screens—started by LG—are probably going to be the trend.

I got to use mobile data at last! It was a matter of setting the globe prepaid APN correctly.

No more Sony Compact phones…or no more mid-range Sony Compact phones like the X Compact. 4^th quarter Premium Product announcement/releases from Sony will keep me hoping for the latter. I’m not yet ready for a bigger phone.

On TV Shows

Iron Fist complete. Agents of SHEILD got interesting and I’m catching up. Big Bang Theory finale was WOW. Flash and Arrow built up to good finales. I have yet to see the second part of the 2-part finale of Supergirl—I’m ok with it so far. All-in-all, the DC TV shows gave me good “TV” times. I’m not sure though if I’ll celebrate with action figures. Restraining myself. Attack on Titan is still pending on my watch list.

Transformers

Cash constraints are keeping me from getting Megatron and I think that’s a good thing. I’m rethinking the Generations Movie poster after successfully posing Ultra Magnus ang finding out the Arcee is still available and Titans Return Blurr looks so much like the cartoon version. i’d still go for the older (released) Kup for the robot mode despite the newer one having a spot-on pickup truck mode. Ultra Magnus poseability is really great, and I kinda hate it because it’s making me think how cool it is to do the poster when I already decided before that I won’t.

Computers

Getting ASUS laptop back was one of the highlights this month. Seagate diskwizard won’t work though because the new drive is a Hitachi. Didn’t bother with restoring anymoer. Mhae and I just used it as a new laptop again.

Getting Ryzen 5 outside bundle was a bigger highlight and successfully completing my upgrade build.

Ryzen office PC request is on it’s way with my old i5’s (the office’s first?) harddrive failing today.

Lego

Speaking of building, it was nice looking getting Lego nostalgia with mhae getting to build her first offcial Lego.

Movies

And tomorrow, we’ll probably see another hero for mhae. Wonder Woman movie looks good. And we’ve started preparing for December with the Star Wars monthly.

Build(Pause), Fix, Catchup

So, our Asus laptop failed. It looks like a problematic harddrive, eventually not detected by the bios after not booting many times after I forced restarted it while taking a long time to restart installing updates. Trying to backup the harddrive (that was taken out by the kind service center guy), bad sectors wer found in a “hidden” partition. At least I got to do a backup after leaving the drive connected to the pc via esata. The usb interface took so long…though the esata connection took a youtube video’s length, too.

Oh, speaking of external drives, I was amazed that my father got himself an external harddrive.

Ryzen 5 was launched and is currently available in the local market…but has to be bundled with an MSI or ECS motherboard. That sucks for me because I’ve gotten myself some ram, a week before, and a motherboard, just before I found out about that. I’m now waiting for unbundled availability or will have to resort to expensive measures. *evil laugh* but of course, I don’t want to go through the expensive measure of buying an building a Rzen 7 system to sell at breakeven or probably less.

My father’s MyPhone MY32L’s screen got broken last month, I think. I finally had it repaired with a black front instead of the supposed white. It looks good so I think the hassle of going to mcs earlier than I could have picked it up and returning the next day to actually get it is just fine. I also got to buy a tempered glass screen for the first time though that was for papa’s phone. I’ll see if it is a good moving forward thing.

Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans ended and I had mixed feelings at it endings. It was a satisfying series, though, all-in-all. The void would have been filled by Shingeki no Kyoujin S2, but I’m still waiting to watch. I did give some time to catchup with DCTV shows and The Big Bang Theory. It kinda helped that the shows had a couple of weeks off so I’m back on track with those shows. I’ll catchup soon with Shingeki and Agents of SHEILD as well as completing Iron Fist. I’m wondering how SHIELD ties up with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, or if it does.

Speaking of movies, mhae and got to watch Power Rangers earlier this month. It was fun.

I realized that the DC Collectibles has 7” action figures and that the DCTV subline is more or less in that scale. I’m passing on the Arrow Flash 2-pack available at playgiantcollectibles at glorietta. Seeing it in real life, I don’t know, I don’t think I’m really an meant to be and action figure collector afterall. In fact, I still have my MAFEX Wonder Woman LBC-boxed.

As for collections, I did some updating on my anime shelves. I finally put the eva portraits and revoltechs to their display place. My werstern/american shelves aren’t assembled yet, so the transformers (technically, japanese, but not anime) are still on the right side with the anime figures. Maybe

MP-36 Megatron has been released and it’s nice seeing Alexis post a couple of pics with that and MP-10. After restraining myself from ordering for 40days, I think I’m going to start purchasing the Megatron 2-pack to go with my G1 and DOTM Optimus Primes.

Also after 40days, I communicated with the Lego Double-Decker Couch seller. After a couple of weeks, he’s found the set and is ready to transact. I’m looking to get the set this coming week. I’m counting that as an April transaction. Megs will be my May transaction.

I have no other toys/figures/collectibles in mind. Looks like I’m finally closing my collecting…until further retriggering of interest. Ack, just remembered the gundams I have to build. So, no purchases planned after May, but I still have to build some gunpla before finalizing my display of a decade (well, less) of collecting.

So that’s April in Geekery for me. Those were quite some updates. Hoping the loose ends this month would be closed by next month.