Goomblog

2009: Year to Lower Debt

2009-01-01T23:50:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

2008-12-31T10:50:00.003-05:00

This sure was a crazy year. I started a new business service (GamesForCanada.com), went back to visit China with LanLan, helped elect Barack Obama into office, watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics, survived the launch of the iPhone 3G. In addition, the economy went down the tubes, gas was up to $4.50 a gallon and then down to $1.50 a few months later, I dodged layoffs not once but twice at my casino job...like I said, crazy.

As much as I feel bummed out about my rising costs of living, my skyrocketing credit card and car payments and all, I can't help but be hopeful for a positive 2009. As an eternal optimist I see a ton of opportunity out there. In the meantime, LanLan and I are cutting back spending, going on less trips and I am changing almost all aspects of my home business. I am quite positive we can make it work, but it won't be easy. I wish you all a happy New Year and hope that soon things will turn around for everyone. It's been a long time coming.

Please, if you party: do so responsibly. Don't drink and drive and keep in touch in 2009. Glad to see more and more friends coming onto Facebook and other sites like it :) Thanks for everything guys!

JJ Gets an iPhone...

2008-04-05T02:25:00.000-04:00

If you're anyone close to me, then you know already my great love of gadgets. Video game consoles, digital cameras and PDAs of all shapes and sizes: they are my kryptonite. Just when I'm wanting to save money or budget or settle on a particular gadget, some new-and-improved one comes along and steals away my heart and I just have to have it. This usually ends with me charging up my credit card, selling my old devices (or holding onto them like dear old friends) or telling myself that "I can't afford it" (which is usually the truth). Things aren't quite as simple though with the iPhone.

You see, as crazy as a $500 phone is (of course I had to get the 16GB version), the fact is that this phone will actually cost me LESS than my Motorola Q (which is, for the record a fantastic phone, but very limited in comparison) with Verizon Wireless. After being with Verizon for nearly 7 years I have absolutely no complaints with their service. Their advertisements are absolutely true in being the most reliable, widespread and dependable company. What they don't tell you, however, is that they charge you through the nose for each and every one of their services and that many of their phones are "gimped" to block out things like file-sharing, personal ringtones, etc. Since AT&T is the only phone carrier that carries the iPhone, that of course meant I was forced to switch my wireless carrier as well. Quite a leap of faith, but one that I haven't regretted for a second.

For all the bells and whistles that the iPhone has (and trust me, it has even more than I knew about), the main reason for the initial switch was the price difference. With my past plan with Verizon, I was paying about $160 a month (absolutely insane!) because their data package was $40 on top of my $40 voice plan, and coupled with my wife's phone it just all added up. With AT&T's prices, I'm much happier indeed. The phone service itself starts at $49.99 a month and then on top of that the unlimited data is another $20. What makes it sweeter though is that each additional line is only $9.99 and that also includes 200 text messages for each user and 700 shared minutes between us. Meaning, in a nutshell we now have state-of-the-art cell phones for a final cost of around $50-$60 a month less than our old phones. I plan on selling our old cell phones and getting back some of the initial sticker shock of the iPhones.

I won't bore you to tears with a long review of the iPhone itself as I'm way late to the table and 3G iPhones are around the corner (something that will inevitably make my phone cry tears of shame), but I will say that it is absolutely in every way the greatest PDA type device I've ever owned. I use it primarily as a cell phone/web browser (and let me tell you, this thing can load almost ANY webpage and perfectly formatted to boot), but I've also been doing small web updates and blog updates from it, checking Google maps for directions, using it to play music as it has a full iPod built right in, watching the Colbert Report on its large and dazzling screen and of course playing with visual voicemail and all the extra goodies on the phone. For the record, I'm faster at typing on my Motorola Q's keyboard, but I think with a little bit of practice I can easily pick up the iPhone's virtual one. The spell-checking/correcting feature is REALLY accurate and I think with time it'll definitely be just as fast, if not faster than my past devices. Needless to say I'm going to be taking this thing everywhere, but at least I can smile knowing that in the long run (after about 9 months or so) it'll have paid for itself and will actually be saving me money ^_^ Gotta love win-win situations.

Goomba Hangs out With Pandas in Chengdu

2008-02-26T23:17:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm back from China now, but don't think that means you won't be seeing tons of random posts from my trip. No my friends ^_^ I have a LOT to show (I took over 40GB of photos/video) but I'll try to pick the more interesting ones so you don't have to see 1000 pictures of various street signs and buildings. I tend to take really odd pictures at times for memories sake...

Anyhow, here I am visiting the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, in Chengdu China. It was actually my second time visiting here (I first went in 2001 just after a baby panda was born...and that was totally awesome), but this time was a lot more laid back and relaxing. It was actually very cold and windy this day (hence the hat and multiple layers of clothes and puffy winter jacket), but I had to re-visit the pandas so it was totally worth the effort. It was LanLan's first time and while the park was a bit disappointing to her over all (there's not really much to do in honesty), she did enjoy the pandas a lot and we took a ton of pictures =) To her credit, she took this shot. Eat that bamboo guys! Get it while it's....cold.

What's this you say? Is it a raccoon? A tanooki (no but that'd be cool too)? Believe it or not friends, this is what is known as a Red Panda...or in Chinese "Small Panda". It's a super-rare and little-known animal that I'm really interested in :) I actually spent probably 3 times as much time watching these little guys climb trees as I did their larger relatives, and this picture in particular is one I like (mostly because it's relatively clear...the little guys run around a lot). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hold one and take a picture with one as planned (the people in charge of this weren't there that day) but at least I got a lot of shots of them :)

LanLan's hair is reddish looking because I dyed it for her right before she left :) She's trying brown next but I like the reddish look on her. We had a few more pictures together, but this is one of the better ones. Thanks for reading! Lots more China updates to come!

My Plane Delayed an Hour

2008-02-12T15:34:00.001-05:00

I kind of saw this coming with it snowing outside, but it was just officially confirmed that my plane has been delayed one hour. At this time we will be boarding at 4:00 and we'll be taking off at 4:30. Oh well, that's the way the pickle squirts asmy Grandfather used to say.

People Sleeping in Airport

2008-02-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

Just to give you an idea of the waiting in the terminal, I have include this picture. People all aound are using makeshift beds to sleep while we wait to hear our flight called. It should only be ten more minutes so time will tell.

Waiting to Board at JFK

2008-02-12T15:14:00.001-05:00

Well, I have to say I am happy with my successful planning on getting to JFK airport by taxi, train, subway and monorail. Better yet, all forms of transportation were on time and I was able to check in for my flight almost 4 hours ahead of time. While waiting to board I have picked up a neck pillow, some noise-cancelling headphones, an iPod charger that uses AA batteries, power converters, toothpaste one Coke and two waters.

Now I wait and pray that my flight is not delayed as it is snowing outside. After I board I will no longer be able to update as my phone cannot be used on the plane and can't use it in China. Hopefully though I can update in a public netbar or from my hotel. See you all soon :) Keep you posted!

Me on the Train

2008-02-12T09:30:00.001-05:00

Me and my puffy green jacket. Can't wait to get rid of my luggage at the airport :)

On the Amtrak Train to NYC

2008-02-12T09:20:00.001-05:00

Okay well this is my first live blogging experience. As many of you
may know I am leaving for China today. In order to get there on time I
am taking a train from New London Connecticut out to New York City.
Once I get there I will be taking a subway and then an Airtrain
monorail to JFK. I'm really excited as I haven't been to China for
almost 5 years, even though I'm exhausted. Keep you posted. I'm going
to try and send photos from my phone for now but I will have better
ones later on from my digital camera. Peace out.

Getting Out of Debt $1 at a Time...

2008-02-06T00:43:00.000-05:00

Well, it's not going to be easy. I started this year oweing a very scary $103,000+ dollars. That includes all of my credit cards (darn credit card bills and their 20%+ interest charges), student loans, car payments and all the other forms of various debt that I accumulated over the last couple of years. The good news is that with my job as a Poker Dealer, I now have a reasonable way to get out of if all and finally get "back into the black" and out of the red, but with them sending me home all the time, it's not exactly helping me.

The other good news is that all of this debt has made me take a serious look at the way I do everything. Websites like Goozex and CheapAssGamer.com (CAG) have really helped me curb my spending on video games, and my eBay store has helped me actually make money on some of my games on the shelves (of which I have far too many, not that I'm complaining). With me going to China in two weeks, it may see that I'm forgetting my piles of debt and adding to the pile, but the fact is I've become very frugal lately and it's helping me a ton. Instead of going out to see movies, shopping or visiting the local casinos (which are less than a mile from my house) I've been staying at home, blogging, reading books, watching old movies and renting games instead of buying them. LanLan's been really good at saving too lately and our weekly shopping trips have become monthly trips and on the last couple we didn't even buy anything. We've also changed our habits from buying things on store cards to using my Paypal Debit card, which actually gives us cash back.

There is hope and light at the end of the tunnel :) I plan to blog about it and keep you guys updated. I will get out of debt and when I do, there's no telling to what I can accomplish ^_^ Let my piles of debt be a lesson to you. I'll give you tips on what you can do to avoid my follies. For the record I'm down to $88,000 right now. That's a good $15,000 less than I owed at the start of the year =)

PrizePiggy.com - New Design & Content

2008-02-05T14:03:00.000-05:00

The PrizePiggy.com website just got its first major update. Made from scratch and entirely in CSS, this new design will make the site more organized and a lot easier to navigate. The new design also allows for support for widescreen monitors and smaller devices (cell phones and iPhones alike) to use it comfortable with full support. The top of the screen now proudly features a REGISTER for FREE Piggy logo and the prize list now comfortably fits on one line (as long as you have a large enough resolution) or will comfortably stretch to the proper size of your monitor.

Also added now is a store where you can buy PrizePiggy.com merchancise from CafePress, updated tab navigation on the top of the page to make the site more organized and a "Deal of the Day" banner on the left sidebar from Amazon.com which displays daily deals as well as their lightning deals. This way you can keep up to date on great sales while you're entering for your free game giveaway :)

More to come soon! Thanks for all of you guys who have supported the site so far. If you find any bugs or have any suggestions on how to make the site better, I'm all ears! Thanks and enjoy!

Guitar Hero III (Wii) - In Stock!

2008-02-02T13:38:00.000-05:00

Guys, for those of you looking for a Guitar Hero III Bundle for the Wii (which includes the wireless guitar for Wii) look no further! I now have one in stock and so far it has no bids. This is a No Reserve auction starting at only $9.99 + Shipping. Doesn't get much better than that ^_^ This thing is impossibly hard to find in stores and has been ever since it launched last season. Don't miss your chance :)

Guitar Hero III Bundle - (Nintendo Wii) / Auction starts at $9.99 / Ends Sunday 2/3/2008

An Absolutely Crazy Day in New York [Really Long Post]

2008-02-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

Well guys, I made it. Yesterday was absolutely INSANE in New York, but everything worked out great in the end, despite being a LOT more expensive than I would have liked. Here's a quick rundown of what we did.

1) We had to get up at 7 in the morning to double check that LanLan had everything packed and to make sure that we had her passport, all her suitcases, paperwork, photos, camera, iPod, etc. For me I had to make sure that my passport was there, we had to take a digital photo of me against a white wall (to create a passport-like photo), edit the photo in Photoshop to make it so it'd print at exactly 2" x 2", pay my business taxes online to the state of Connecticut, drive to CVS to print my digital photos (we got there before the store opened) and of course drive to the Milford Train Station where we'd take a train into New York.

2) When we got to New York I had very, very little time to do everything I needed. Since I decided I will be going to China on the 12th of February, that leaves very little time for me to get a visa in order to visit China. Little did I know that the visa fee (which used to be only $50 total) was now $130 and if you want it same day they add another $30 to it. That's all fine and good, but to make things even MORE complicated you have to arrive before 12 to drop off the visa and fill out the paperwork before 12 Noon and come back before 2PM to pick it up same day. With me dropping off LanLan at JFK and not arriving into New York until 11:15 AM that means things were extremely tight!

3) What we did was walk out of Grand Central and see if we could catch a taxi. Of course at this point it was downpouring cats and dogs and there was a line of about 10 people in front of us to hail a cab at the curb. After 9 or so people got their cabs, we stood there with our suitcases and backpacks and continued to get drenched. Stupid me, the weather was pretty nice in Connecticut so I didn't bring a hat nor did I have an umbrella...boy did I regret that decision. Finally, a black car pulled up and asked if we would like to hire him to drive us for a flat fee of $79 to JFK. We told him that we had to go to the Chinese consulate first and he said "no problem. Leave big tip" in a heavy Russian-type accent. We decided to go ahead with it since it was the only likely way we'd be able to make it on time.

4) The cab driver turned out to be from the Ukraine and sure enough he drove me to the consulate quickly. I jumped out of the car and was in and out of the consulate to drop off my passport in less than 2 minutes total. The driver talked a LOT about Poker after LanLan had told him I was a dealer there and he had a lot of questions for our casino's structure, limits, etc. He made a quick stop off at his "office" (small car repair shop) and then we were at JFK roughly 3 hours before LanLan's flight. I rented a SmartCarte for her, helped move her suitcases to the line and then she and I had to go our seperate ways. I'm going to miss her a bunch, but 11 days will go quickly :) At least I don't have to be jealous now about her eating all of those yummy Sichuan foods without me.

5) At this point it was already 12:45 and I needed to get back to the Consulate before 2:00. Getting from JFK airport to 42nd street with only a little more than an hour isn't easy. I originally had a shuttle bus that was going to drive us to JFK but I had to cancel (luckily, they gave me my money back too thank God) and I was originally hoping to take the new Air Train monorail/train back to Manhattan. Of course things rarely work out as planned when on a TIGHT schedule, so I ended up having to take another Taxi (this time a yellow cab) into town. The good thing is that they have a flat $45 + $4 Toll + 15% tip Taxi structure from JFK to anywhere in Manhattan. The bad news is that it still costed me $58 or so whereas the AirTrain would only have been $7 total. Blech =P

6) It's been a seriously LONG time since I've taken a cab in New York. I had no idea how much they've changed. They now accept credit cards for one (you can get "commuter cash" back if you pay with a Chase Card also), they have TV's built into the divider now which plays a continuous 20 minutes or so of daily news clips, entertainment videos, movie reviews, etc. It also has stock tickers, built in GPS (that is probably the biggest GPS I've seen since the TV is at least 10" or larger) and stocks. The driver I asked me to turn down the TV rather rudely since he wanted to chat up with his friends on his cell phone (I think it's a requirement that cab drivers keep a cell phone glued to their ears at all time), but doing so only made me hear what he was talking about. This is probably the one time I've had a cabbie that spoke English and only English in New York, but I'm not sure that was a good thing. Hearing the N-word thrown out every other word and talking about gang violence and how he was going to "get back" at certain people that "did him wrong" made me a bit on edge. Luckily, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, despite being slightly scary.

7) I made it to the Chinese consulate right on time despite lots of traffic on the way back into Manhattan. I went in to get the passport and it wasn't ready yet. I sat and talked to another American guy who's going over last minute to visit with his wife to Guangzhou, but unlike me he was a little nervous since Guangzhou is having all sorts of problems with transportation, weather and such (you may have heard about it on CNN lately). He was really nice though and he'd been over in the past, so we were both excited. I got my passport and visa on time (nearly 2:30 right before they closed) and I was on my way. I thought it was funny that they told me the price for the visa in Chinese when they told everyone in English. They must know I have some basic knowledge of the language from all my past visas in there haha.

8) At this point I was very happy. I made all of my goals in the day successfully. LanLan got to her plane with time to spare, I got my visa on time and despite my wallet being significantly lighter, the last-minute planning was a success. Unfortunately, I had to walk back a mile to Times Square in the down-pouring rain (my ears felt like they were going to freeze off) and the 30-mph or higher winds made the wind come at me sideways (think of that scene in Forrest Gump when he's in Vietnam). I got a quick bite to eat at Yoshinoya (a sort of Japanese fast food restaurant that sells chicken/rice bowls and such) for $5 and then took the S-train back to Grand Central.

9) Grand Central was extremely busy at this time and there was security EVERYWHERE. It turned out that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was there announcing a new plan to add $153 Million to ant-terror funds for NYC's transportation systems. You can read the full article here:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/transportation/ny-ussecu025561640feb02,0,504887.story

It was interesting being like ten feet away from someone you see on the news all the time. Anything can happen when you're in New York. I tried to take a picture but my blurry Camera photo isn't even worth posting ^_^ Trust me.

10) I took the last off-peak train back to Connecticut and talked to my mom on my phone about the crazy day I had. She's going to be paying half of my ticket to China (which is really the only reason I'd consider this insanity) and for that I'm very grateful. When I got back to Milford it was raining again and still cold, and to make matters worse I got stuck in awful work traffic all the way past New Haven (I got back at exactly 5:04 PM to Milford), but the whole time I was really happy. I'm going to China in just ten days and things are going to be exciting again ^_^

Goomba is Going to China ... Last Minute!

2008-02-02T12:26:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I have been to China a total of four times now and the last time I went was in 2003 when I brought my wife (at the time she was my fiance) back to the US with me. I have fond memories of living over there on and off for about a year and a half total and I was bummed out when my workplace turned down my request to go with my wife (who just flew out yesterday from JFK). Originally, she was going to go for 24 days by herself and then I would have to pick her up when she came back, but last minute I found a loop hole in my work system that will allow me to go for a total of 11 days (better than nothing).

The loop hole is this. I am scheduled for 3 days at my job a week in the casino and since we get our schedules about two weeks ahead of time, I went to work on my day off Thursday at midnight when the new schedules come out. I gave away two of my three days at the end of the week, requested a week off (the maximum they'd allow me to request unpaid) and then put in for 3 vacation days at the start of the third week. That essentially gives me roughly 11 days off in a row, without having to worry about them approving it.

Needless to say, planning to go to China wasn't something I had planned. I have been expecting, since last November, that I'd be staying home by myself, twiddling my thumbs, cleaning a ton, catching up on video games and doing lots and lots of web updates, but as you can probably imagine I'm REALLY excited now ^_^ I still have a few minor things to figure out (like how I'm going to get to the airport) but I'll figure out something. Chengdu here I come!

PrizePiggy #002 - Winner Announced! [User/Passwords Edition - 1/28/2008]

2008-01-28T15:16:00.000-05:00

Another week and another bunch of prizes from PrizePiggy.com. This week we introduced usernames and passwords to make it easier for repeat visitors to enter again, so from now on if you don't have a username you can sign up for one on the page. In the coming week I will be adding more user goodies, so keep an eye out for that ^_^ New prizes coming next week!

Congrats to the winners! For the main winner I already have your address so your game is already on the way to you :) For runners up please email me at jj@improcomics.org to let me know if you would like a Goombuck placed into your account or if you would prefer a 48 hour Xbox live code. In the next few weeks members will be able to store their Goombucks earned on our website's new wallet area (coming soon) so you can look forward to that. Thanks again to all who entered! New prizes coming on Wednesday!

Pikmin 2 - Great Overall Condition $25 Shipped!

2008-01-25T16:40:00.000-05:00

Edit: This item has already been listed on eBay and is up to around $30. I have more in stock though and will be listing them in the coming days ^_^

Here is a great deal for anyone interested! I am selling the ULTRA RARE game "Pikmin 2" for the Nintendo Gamecube to anyone who is looking for it. The game doesn't include the manual and the disc has some very small scratches (none that inhibit game play in any way), but this is a steal at this price. It's almost impossible to find this game anywhere less than $35-$40 these days. A true collector's item :) Please let me know if you're interested! Pictures below (click for larger version)

Thanks ^_^

Goombucks - Full Explanation ^_^

2008-01-25T16:14:00.000-05:00

My eBay Store: Goomba's Game Gallery
http://stores.ebay.com/Goombas-Game-Gallery

You may have seen the term "Goombucks" on my eBay auctions, or my PrizePiggy.com website. Here is a full list of rules that are related to Goombucks. Hope it answers some questions.

1) Each Goombuck is good for $1.00 off any one of my auctions, with the exception of ACEO auctions.
2) Goombucks ARE combinable. You can save up several and get bigger discounts our free items even.
3) Goombucks are NOT transferable. You can't give them to friends or pool them together for group discounts.
4) They don't expire, but they do have individual Serial Numbers. I keep good track of them.
5) To redeem them, simply put in "Seller Discount" $1.00 for each Goombuck you are turning in and be
sure to list the Serial Number(s) in the comment section while checking out ^_^
6) I don't guarantee you will get a Goombuck with your auction, but I do pass them out quite frequently.

Virgin Galactic - Completely Awe Inspiring

2008-01-24T01:13:00.000-05:00

Let it be known that I am a huge Science-Fiction fan and perhaps even a bigger fan of Space. Ever since I was young I've always thought that space travel and study of the planets, stars and galaxies were among the greatest of all fascinations. The fact that man has gone into space, landed on the moon, studied other planets and developed sattelites, HUBBLE and other technical wonders is absolutely incredible, but a little project known as Virgin Galactic and "Spaceship 2" are even further along.

Virgin announced today a new project that they are working on that will literally change the way the world looks at space. It will launch these small spaceships out of the atmosphere and into space by means of advanced airplanes that use far less fuel than traditional shuttles and allow for more frequent exit and re-entry. The spaceship has the ability to land on its own without parachute and will eventually be able to allow thousands of people the chance to go into space. Initially, it will be used by scientists and researchers but they've already expressed extreme interest in commercial and eventually public flights. Perhaps even more incredible than exiting the atmosphere and experience anti-gravity and the true blackness of space, is the consideration that Virgin could eventually use these ships to travel around the globe at incredible speeds. Think about it, if you were to enter space, you could easily travel half way around the world and re-enter at any point you wish. It's the next best thing to teleportation technology (which lets face it, even if it is ever developed is an extremely scary thought). I say congrats to Virgin and their new program. I just hope that I live long enough to be able to afford a flight into space myself :)

Check out the official website here. It's jaw-droppingly awesome: http://www.virgingalactic.com/flash.html
Also, CNN has a fantastic piece on it as well with fully rendered 3D videos. You really do have to see it to believe it ^_^

Streaming Video to Xbox 360 - Major Success!

2008-01-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

I have to say, I'm extremely impressed with Microsoft's recent updates to the dashboard for the Xbox 360. When I first got my Elite, I thought it was great that I could play WMV and MP4 files and such, but the obvious lack of DIVX/XVID playback was disappointing to say the least. Now that the Xbox 360 can play these files I'm as happy as a bug in a rug, but even moreso now that I learned that I can stream these files 100% from my PC computer upstairs. Since my PC is on a wireless network, and my Xbox 360 is downstairs connected with a cable to my router, it was inconvenient. With the recent dashboard update, however, it is now possible to stream the videos/music/photos from my PC to my Xbox and it's SUPER easy. I didn't think it would stream so well, but sure enough it does.

Keep in mind that you need to have Media Sharing set up with Windows Media Player 11, but it works perfectly. I also learned today that I could watch .MOV files on the Xbox 360 and did so with a small 1GB USB flash drive. I would give major props to the PS3 for their streaming abilities as well, but since their recent addition only adds Divx and not Xvid it loses half a star in my book. I plan to use this mostly for my own videos (which I tend to use Xvid for) and for Japanese J-Pop music videos which are regularly in either format. This makes my entertainment system 100,000x more entertaining (even though I still have a tiny SDTV). That'll change in the future and my guess is that both systems (Xbox 360 and PS3) will continue to add new formats as time goes on. Gotta love the times we're living in folks :) It's a great time to be a gamer!

PrizePiggy.com - Week #001 - Winner Announced!

2008-01-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

The first week was a huge success and I want to thank everyone who entered :) We had 248 entries this first week and while many were from CAG and Goozex communities (as I posted the contest on their respective forums) we have had a few people come in from strictly word of mouth and that's really inspiring to me :) I hope to grow this website and make the prizes better and better with time. Eventually I may even do more than one drawing a week if there is enough interest ^_^ I enjoy giving free things away and I know you guys like getting free games, so please continue to visit the site. Thanks so much!

Below you can see the video where we select the one main winner (who got the game of their choice) as well as four runners up who will receive either $1.00 worth of Goombucks (which are good in my eBay store or etsy store) or a 48 hour Xbox Live code. Runners up winners will be emailed this week to choose which prize they wanted of the two above choices and the main winner will have their game mailed to them. Thanks again guys. New contest starts on Wednesday :)

Holy Dead Ink Cartridges, Batman!

2008-01-21T01:35:00.001-05:00

True Story...today is the first official contest for PrizePiggy.com and I was "conveniently" sent home from work today 5 hours early (the casino was slower than expected). This means I had time to actually do my Prize Piggy drawing on time, instead of a day later as planned, but there was a small kink in my plans...my printer (a Brother MFC 210-C decided to bite the dust. Well the black ink cartridge did anyway. No matter how many times I cleaned it (I even put a brand new cartridge in) it won't print black, at all. So after wasting nearly 2 hours of cleaning and running printer tests, I ended up just having to print the entire entries list in colors...really, really ugly colors (red border around the boxes with blue ink). Oh well, it'll work but I'm not sure how good it'll look in the video.

To make matters worse, I just bought like 20 replacement cartridges for this printer so I'm stuck with the decision of buying another model and losing out on those ink cartridges, or getting another one with the same model (regrettably it's not the greatest printer, though it was relatively cheap after rebate). Bummer. Oh well, the Prize Piggy will still make his decision soon enough :)

No More Heroes - Coming out in 3 Days!

2008-01-20T11:11:00.000-05:00

Okay guys now you finally will have the chance to play Suda51's No More Heroes! This is a cel-shaded masterpiece that has you hunting down "heroes" one by one until you reach the top of the chain. The game features an electric light sword (similar to a light saber but just different enough), lots of fan-service and anime/manga cameos, a GTA-like open city system, Wii remote controls and unbelievably cool boss battles and lots of video game spoofing and such. The game is rated M for Mature due to a lot of violence (and unlike Japan, lots of blood also). I really recommend you get this game if you own the Wii. Show your support to the guys at Grasshopper ^_^ Suda51 and Goomba478 will both appreciate you supporting great games :)

PrizePiggy.com - Now Open!

2008-01-18T11:38:00.000-05:00

PrizePiggy.com has officially opened its doors and is waiting for you to enter ^_^ I will be giving away free video games every week and will be selecting the winner by PrizePiggy drawing. This means that all the entrants' names will be cut out onto paper slips, put into a cute piggy bank and shaken up. The winner will have their choice of game from my prize list (which is always changing) and shipping is free to all US residents. Canadians and non-US residents are able to enter but I do ask that they pay the shipping for the games if they win. Good luck and thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Assassin's Creed: PS3 or 360?

2008-01-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

Now that I have a PS3, it's occured to me that it's not such an easy decision now on which versions of games I should buy. As I'm not really that into online multiplayer games (mostly due to my small TV and my lack of free time), I stick mostly to single player games and games that I can pick up and play in short bursts to come back to later (such as Super Mario Galaxy). With Assassin's Creed the choice isn't so simple though. The game is single player, relatively short and nearly identical for the two versions. The PS3 supposedly has a slightly higher framerate while the 360 has achievements, rumble and some say better controls. I'm curious what other people think about this one. In the meantime I'll keep tinkering with my PS3 until I make a decision :)

Amazon.com Widgets

PS3 Arrives: Step 1 Inspecting Contents

2008-01-16T22:14:00.000-05:00

I ordered my PS3 60GB system from www.gamefunk.com for only $349.99 (+ shipping). I never had heard of the site before but it was listed on CAG so I thought I'd give it a shot. As many people asked me to list my experience with this purchase, I've decided to make a detailed blog about it.Step 1) The Box and Contents: Here is the PS3 as the box was opened. The box has a little bit of damage to it, but nothing significant. For a used system it's more than acceptable. I have no idea how Game Funk gets ahold of their used systems, but these are in considerably better condition than I expected. So far so good!

As you can see, the box has some wear and tear, but this was totally expected. After all, I'm looking to buy a game system and not a box otherwise I would have just bought it on eBay where you literally can end up paying $500 for a NEW BOX (that conveniently forgets to mention that it doesn't include the system inside the empty box...heh). As you can see the 60GB PS3 comes with the standard video hookups but the HDMI is seperate (and expensive if you buy the official Sony PS3 branded ones). I recommend getting a generic brand as they tend to work just as well in most cases.

Again, the box is a bit smashed up on the corners and a bit worn-out but at least it wasn't significantly crushed or damaged. There was tape over the box opening which I removed. Still, check out all of the formats that the PS3 can play at the bottom of the box..it's pretty incredible when you think about it. For the price of an iPod essentially I got a 60GB PS3 that can play nearly any media file under the sun (including Divx files and WMV files as of the 2.1 update).

As you can see, I made sure to take out every part and double check that everything was there. The box's infrastructure was still in great shape and held together well (despite the PS3 box weighing about 17 pounds!).

The box's contents in full. Many of the cables had never been used (the USB one was still sealed which was nice and all of the cables, controllers and wires were in MINT condition. If I hadn't known better I would have thought this was a brand new system. Also note that the tear on the outside foam covering the PS3 was merely cosmetic. Underneath this thin layer of foam was another layer of plastic that had no rips or tears anywhere to be seen. Game Funk is scoring extra bonus points in my book for the over all condition of this PS3 system. I don't regret my purchase for a second.

Despite being a fingerprint magnet and the questionable Spider-man font, this PS3 is in excellent condition and looks great! It'll fit wonderfully into my entertainment center right below on the shelf my Nintendo Wii (who rests on the side of my TV).

The warranty label was marked as 1/2/08. Not sure what that means for me (does that mean I have a one year warranty from this date?). I'm not exactly sure but it is interesting nonetheless.

So the only damage on the unit was actually on the inside of the media-card cover. You can't see this at ALL from the outside unless you list up the flap to view the CF/SD/Mini SD / Memory Stick card readers (this thing can read just about any format you throw at it!). Here you can see that the chrome trim above the card readers is scraped up and the chrome/plastic in general is scratched up as well. If this was on the outside of the system it would bother me immensely being the perfectionist that I am, but on the inside I couldn't care less ^_^

I will be doing more information on the system as I go along, but so far I'm very happy with my purchase. To all you CAGs and Goozex users that were worried that Game Funk was a scam site, I assure you they really did deliver a great PS3 system for the $349.99 + shipping as promised. I only wish I got a commission for recommending them :) In the next few days I will tell you about installing updates, running PS1/PS2/PS3 games on it and testing the PSP Remote Start/Remote Play features and others. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

I Finally Broke Down and Got a PS3

2008-01-16T13:48:00.001-05:00

The un-thinkable has just happened. Despite being an adamant and die-hard Nintendo Fan boy and owning only a 19" SDTV, I have finally broken down and purchased Sony's Playstation 3 console. There were a number of reasons for this, which I will explain in short detail:

1) While the PS3 has no games that really mark it as a "system seller" in my book, there is no denying that the system is quite powerful and has a ton of potential. I already have an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii so now I own all the "next gen" systems, and as a gamer who wants to experience the best of all three, I'm now prepared to do so. It also has a built in Blu-Ray player, and while I don't yet have an HDTV, it's future-proofed.

2) Remote Play: Since I work away from home a LOT and don't have much time for console gaming, this is a HUGE addition to my gaming arsenal. For those of you who don't know, the PS3 allows you to stream your PS1 games (and select PS3 games as well) to your PSP anywhere in the world where you have wireless Internet access. What this means is that you can put a PS1 disc in your PS3 system, and when you're away from home you can remotely turn on your PS3 system and play the game through your PSP. This effectively makes the PSP a portable PS1/PS3 and Sony is likely to add more functionality in the future as well.

3) Backwards Compatibility: While the new 80GB PS3 has software emulation and the new 40GB model has NO backwards compatibility with PS2 games, I made sure to get the 60GB version. Not only does it offer 20GB more space than the 40 (even if its 20GB less than the 80), but it has built in Wi-Fi, card reader slots and of course full PS2 hardware built in for maximum compatibility with PS2 games. I'm a BIG PS2 fan, so it's simply inexcusible for me to not have access to these games on my PS3. My recommendation: Get a 60GB model before they're all gone, or get the slightly cheaper 20GB version if you can manage to find one.

So those are the three main reasons I finally broke down to get a PS3. I'll be posting information on the GREAT deal I got on this system as well as a general unboxing of the system complete with photos! Hope you'll check it out :)

The Opening of the Goomblog!

2008-01-16T05:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally made the jump to Blogger/Blogspot. After running a somewhat successful blog on eBay for a while, I lost interest as many of my friends jumped ship and went to other sites (mostly Myspace and Facebook). While I do like Facebook, it's become somewhat bloated lately with all the plug-ins and add-ons, so I have decided to the do majority of my blogging here.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is JJ and I commonly go by the nickname "Goomba" online, hence the Goomblog. I'm moving away from using registered characters and icons though so I will not be showcasing Nintendo's Goomba character on here at this time, but that was my original inspiration for the nickname. Oh and no, I'm not Italian for the record =) though I do love Italian food!

This blog will be mostly featuring articles and posts about video games, web design and artwork (the three things I'm most into) though I may have other topics from time to time. Enjoy!