Erik Novales

It’s time for the standard “I’ll try to update more often” post. Seriously!

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A few weeks ago, my beloved Plantronics Discovery 925 started acting up — the microphone on it was apparently failing. People that I called using the headset said that they could only hear me very faintly, although I could still hear them just fine. A couple of support e-mails to Plantronics later, and I received [...]

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A couple of weeks back, we were given tickets to the Toshiba Classic, a PGA Champions (aka Senior) Tour event here in Orange County. We were in a corporate hospitality box on the 17th hole, which was a nice way to watch the proceedings compared to simply slumming it out on the grass.
The sponsors and [...]

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I played the demo for Tom Clancy’s HAWX recently, and was pretty disappointed in it.
I found the plane to be quite difficult to control (for no good reason), and the “action camera” mode is extremely disorienting. You are forced to use the “action camera” for part of the tutorial, and it’s quite maddening — for [...]

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The other day, I went to Express to buy some clothes. As it turns out, clothing retailers are still engaged in pretty heavy discounting, even after the holiday season – not entirely unexpected. However, while I was shopping, I was asked if I needed help by no less than five different salespeople – multiple times [...]

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Last July, a law requiring hands-free cell phone usage while driving went into effect in California. As a fine, law-abiding citizen, I decided to ditch the somewhat crummy hands-free set that came with my phone, and buy a Bluetooth headset. I don’t often talk on the phone while driving, but I figured that a wireless [...]

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The article: Actor Cuts Throat on Stage in Knife Mix-Up.
I immediately thought of the Curtains Down level in Hitman: Blood Money, where you can take care of one of your targets by swapping out a prop pistol for a real one. (The target is normally shot in the head with a prop pistol, as part [...]

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Looks like Cuttino Mobley is hanging up his jersey for good, due to a previously-undiagnosed heart condition.
Now I feel a bit mean for cracking wise about his “asymptotic” condition.

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Here’s a link to the original story.
The source said Mobley would see a heart specialist on Tuesday. Normally players have 48 hours to report to their new teams and take a physical examination, followed by another 24 hours for all the test results to come in. Because this trade was completed after business hours on [...]

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Earlier this week, I packed my bags and drove out to Las Vegas, Nevada, to volunteer on the ground for the Obama campaign on Election Day. This was part of their “Drive for Change” campaign, which encouraged people from California (and other states) to volunteer in battleground states. I decided that, given the historic nature [...]

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