After almost two months of side questing, collecting Daedric artifacts and all-around lollygagging, I finally sat down last week and completed Skyrim‘s main quest.

To note, I have the PS3 version — yes, the problematic one. I completed the game in spite of various bugged quests, lag and load times. I think I have 80 hours in? (I don’t play every day.) All of this before the “end-of-month-fix-everything” patch arrived.

Above: I took a picture of my quest statistics. Main quests: 18? The main story of the game feels short if you’ve been doing all the fun side quests. To note: roleplay-wise, my character, Kador, isn’t probably the “realest” RPG character. He’s the Dean at the college of magic, Harbinger for the warriors’ guild, master-thief of the thieves guild and head of the assassin’s guild. A big burly viking who can sneak like a ninja in front of most enemies but can’t hurt flying dragons for shit.

The game doesn’t “end.” The main quest is simply resolved. That story is finished now. I can still continue my journey on Skyrim, maybe collect the other 7 Daedric artifacts I’m missing, join the rebellion/empire or collect stupid crimson nirnroot. Or maybe start over with a new character and do it all over again.

Thank you, Bethesda.

Like some of you, my phone has become my daily camera. It goes with me everywhere, and sometimes I even remember to take pictures.

However, the spontaneity is lost when, upon further viewing of stuff I took I sometimes feel like it’s not worth creating an album for. Other times I just plain forget to transfer anything.

Solution: here’s a phonedump of the last three weeks. They actually piece together some stories of what I’ve been up to (mostly the ever-burgeoning alcoholism/gluttony) and they create proof that I do, in fact, leave the house some days.

Most of the stories for the pictures are in the description on their flickr page. Arranged as chronologically as possible.

Apps used: stock camera app + Camera360

2011 was our PS3 year. We have two at home now (one’s busted) when, in the previous years, we had none. There was a lot of catching up to do. Also: I am awake this early because my belly is itchy and I can’t risk scratching it while I sleep lest I wake up with intestines and whatnot under my fingernails. Exciting times.

Just last month, the PS3 (FAT), after less than a month of having its lens replaced, broke down for good. It currently sits as a paperweight somewhere around the house. We bought a PS3 (SLIM) a few days before Christmas, and the changes we’ve noticed are: less heat, zippier(?) load times, less noise and the machine’s greater insistence on pushing things to 1080p, where the PS3 (FAT) did not.

Games played:

• (PS3) God of War 1 (not finished)
• (PC) System Shock 2 (finished, after getting it to work finally)
• (PC) Portal 2 
• (PS3) Assassin’s Creed (not finished, too repetitive)
• (PS3) Enslaved (not finished, borrowed)
• (PS3) Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (borrowed)
• (PS3) Tekken 6 (Gets some play every now and then when we feel like beating each other up in the house. I am not good but I can spam you with Alisa or Asuka or Lars.)
• (PS3) GTA IV (Like my first play around, started but not finished.)
• (PS3) Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition 
• (PS3) Uncharted 2 GOTY Edition 
• (PS3) Red Dead Redemption (not finished)
• (PS3) inFamous (not finished, part of the “Welcome Back” package)
• (PS3) Little Big Planet (not finished, part of the “Welcome Back” package)
• (PS3) WipeOut HD Fury (part of the “Welcome Back” package)
• (PS3) Transformers: War for Cybertron (not finished)
• (PC) Team Fortress 2 (when it went free)
• (PS3) Bomberman ULTRA (during the PS+ trial, now expired)
• (PS3) Golden Axe (during the PS+ trial, now expired)
• (PS3) Burnout Crash demo (on repeat for a few hours)
• (PS3) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (the PS3 FAT stopped reading the disc while on the last level — the lens broke after that)
• (Android) Muffin Knight (pony rainbow poops!)
• (PS3) Arkham City 
• (PS3) Uncharted 3 (I will always remember this as the time when I stop believing online reviews.)
• (PS3) Saint’s Row The Third (I’ll write about this game maybe later. It was so much fun, I completed the game AGAIN on the SLIM when my saved data wouldn’t copy from the FAT.)
• (PS3) Skyrim (I think I’m at least 60 hours in … and counting. The game occasionally freezes during fast travel or on the loading screens. As a friend always says, “PC SKYRIM = MASTER RACE.” The jerk.)
• (PS3) Mortal Kombat (YES. Also, Shao Kahn is a jerk.)
• (PS3) Bayonetta (Not finished. Bought it on the premise that it was sort-of like DMC. Then I remembered I have never completed a DMC game and that I got bored with Chaos Legion when I played that years ago.)

This year’s question: will the Vita be worth it? (Or will I get an Xbox360 for Kinect?)

Flying bat-vehicle! Also, the kid singing: is that the actor who played 8-year old Bruce Wayne in Begins?

What happened to Prime’s head? (he put on a lot of weight too) Why did Megatron attach all those LED lights on him? How does protoform Grimlock know what dinosaurs look like?

I told myself I wouldn’t flash again until ICS hits — but since my installation of Criskelo has been bugging out on me lately,  (must be my undervolt values) I decided to flash MIUI Android. It didn’t turn out great. Wi-Fi hasn’t been fully worked out yet and the theme I installed … didn’t want to uninstall itself. (I couldn’t change it to anything else.) I sorta liked the idea of having the option to apply themes on my phone, but for it not to work? I had to flash again.

Decided to give CheckROM a try.

At first glance, you would think that it was stock ROM minus the bloat. It’s so much more.

My setup:

ROM: CheckROM RevoHD™ V3.1.1

Modem: XXKI4

Kernel: Siyah-V2.1.1 (SetCPU and BLN-enabled!)

… but I didn’t flash them one by one. The real gem in CheckROM is that it includes the KitchenPro app. It’s essentially a one-stop app to download and install components to customize your CheckROM installation. With it, you could add boot animations, modems, themes, widgets/apps, dialer themes, mods and even kernels!

1. My configuration.
2. The KitchenPro app.
3. Some of the components you could install.
4. Boot Animations!
5. Widgets/Apps – If you miss the Samsung bloatware, you could restore them from here.
6. Kernels!

The ROM also comes with JKay Deluxe to allow you to further customize how your phone looks/operates. (I updated mine to v.13.1 via xda download. Read before you install!)

Here’s what the Bios boot animation looks like:

(Totally had that installed until the ICS theme overwrote it with the ICS boot animation. I reverted back to a simpler theme but the ICS boot animation stuck, which I like.)

For now, I’m keeping my configuration because it’s stable and has adequate battery life. (After a week, I might try flashing other modems/kernels just to see which configuration is best.)

If you want a stock ROM you could start customizing, try out CheckROM.

Remember: read (a lot!) first before flashing your device!

***

Overclocked to 1.6Ghz, here’s what my config could do: