Following the death of my grandfather has been many busy days of cleaning out his house. Let’s just say little has been thrown away since 1953, and there’s a ton to be done. Good thing I’m allergic to dust, too.

Here’s some stuff to read, if you haven’t already:

Review: Greed Corp
What are your dogs eating?
Is Spell Check Making Us Stupid?
Review of HP Deskjet F4480 All-In-One
Pittsburgh Pet Produts Examiner

Xclio Blackhawk Full Tower PC Case

Now this is a cool case. Not just because of its sleek design, black finish and fancy blue LED lighting – but because it keeps your hardware wonderfully cool. With room for tons of drives, a very easy-access control panel on the front top and plenty of space for anything you want to put inside, this case is perfect for a wide range of computer users. From gamers to media professionals, or just the average guy who likes to plug lots of things in, this case will suit.

It is big enough to build just about any system imaginable, and the design of its interior makes it so that you shouldn’t have to remove any hardware to access other hardware when you need to do a swap.

Review Intro:

The Blackhawk is packaged in a big box, because it’s a big boy. This is the type of case you need to make sure you have enough room for before you buy it. A full tower, it stands about 18.5” high and over 20” in depth.

The styrofoam padding in the box is solid and should keep it from getting damaged. It is your standard side of the box padding. The case is also wrapped in a plastic bag for scratch control. The Blackhawk is, not surprisingly, black. In fact, it couldn’t be more black. Even the wording on the control panel that tells you what each knob and button do are black.

So let’s take a closer look…

Borderlands is a huge game. Not just in terms of its environment, its customization possibilities, its weapons or the way it allows each gamer to play their own way, but in the length of time it takes to get through it and unlock all the possible achievements. There is simply a ton to do, and a ton of achievements to unlock along the way. While many are story related, many are not, and a few can be a little puzzling at first when it comes to figuring out how to unlock them.

Let’s take a look at some of the achievements in Borderlands that give people trouble…

After a long haul of not updating a whole hell of a lot, I figure it’s time to break the silence and get things back on track in honor of this blog’s one year anniversary, which came and went a few days ago without any regard. That is a consequence of my last post, which is one of many things that have been going on lately.

Aside from this: Top 10 Free Blackberry Apps for January 2010

and this: Bioshock 2 Collector’s Edition Review

I’ve hardly written anything lately. But, that’s all going to be changing soon.

As of this past weekend I quit Roomful Express and started a new technical writing position with Eshopic, Inc. It’ll allow me to do something I actually enjoy, and as an added bonus, give me more time to work on all my other sites that have suffered over the past few months due to lack of time.

So get ready for more Goatmooseries and joy. They’re inbound, fella.

I love you, grandpa. See you again someday down the road…
From Observer-Reporter.com

James A. McConnell

Watercolor artist, World War II veteran

James Alexander McConnell, 88, of Houston, died Tuesday, February 16, 2010, in Canonsburg General Hospital.

He was born December 23, 1921, in Canonsburg, a son of William W. and Ethel M. Templeton McConnell.

Mr. McConnell was a lifelong member of Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church, serving as elder and trustee.

He was a 1940 graduate of Canonsburg High School.

Mr. McConnell entered the service in 1942 and served three and a half years in the U.S. Army Air Forces as an aerial photographer gunner, commissioned single-engine pilot and B-29 Superfortress flight engineer.

While stationed in Amarillo, Texas, he met and married Lona Conners, who survives. They were happily married for 64 years.

His two passions in life were his family and his love for painting. He attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. His commercial art education led him to a 38-year career with Duquesne Light Co. Retirement permitted him to spend more time doing what he loved most, painting. Concentrating on watercolor, he developed his own style and technique of watercolor painting. He was a member of Pittsburgh Watercolor Society, Pittsburgh Society of Artists and Bethel Artists Guild. He was often requested to instruct classes, conduct workshops and give demonstrations on his approach to watercolor painting. His landscapes and florals expressed his imagination and individualism as an artist. He created many architectural portraits. Among his works are paintings of the Washington County Courthouse, LeMoyne House, Church of the Covenant, many private homes, several buildings on the Washington & Jefferson College campus and four historical buildings of Williamsburg, Va. His watercolor of One Oxford Center, headquarters of Duquesne Light in Pittsburgh, was used by the utility company on a Christmas card and on the cover of the company magazine. From that experience, he began creating his own Christmas cards, which were eagerly awaited by friends and family. His paintings have been exhibited at W&J, California University of Pennsylvania, Wheeling Artisans Center, Stifel Gallery, Gallery 200, World West Galleries, Riehl Fine Arts Gallery, Countryside Gallery and more. He was a successful contributor to the annual Art in the Garden and was a featured artist for Art in the Round. He admired his artist friends and found much joy in their company. His painting philosophy was simple: “Strive to draw, compose and render well, presenting material that is pleasing and easily understood.”

Surviving, in addition to his wife, are a daughter, Monica Saporito (Bill) of McMurray; a son, retired Capt. James A. McConnell Jr. (Anni) of San Marino, Calif.; two grandsons, his pride and joy, Jeff Saporito (Laura) and Max McConnell; and two nieces and a nephew.

Deceased is a sister, Jane McConnell Goodwillie.

Friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in McIlvaine-Speakman Funeral Home Ltd., Robert K. McIlvaine, owner/supervisor, 27 Cherry Avenue, Houston, PA 15342, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, February 19, with the Rev. Thomas D. Hamilton Jr. officiating. Interment will follow in Oak Spring Cemetery, Canonsburg. Condolences may be sent by viewing the obituary at www.mcilvaine-speakman.com.

I’ve decided to get back into game reviews here on Goatmoose. Not quite as in-depth and expansive as I used to, but brief looks at whether something tickled my fancy or tickled my hatred. Last April, I more or less stopped doing reviews when I became senior editor over at Addicted Gamer. Since that site has come and gone, and I rarely acquire games quick enough to write much at Xbox 360 Digest (since, you know, they’re into being all current and suave, and I’m too poor to buy games when they first come out), I’ll do the occasional belated review here on this dandy site. I still keep up with XBLA and DLC quite a bit as well, so you’ll see more of that as well. This site often looks too much like an ad outlet anymore, and that bugs my psyche.

So here we are – Borderlands. It’s a pretty swell game, and I’d like to tell you a thing or two about it.

A sponsor company called Vacation Rental.org contacted me about a new commercial advertising their site. It stars a “superhero” named Unitard. Not surprisingly, he wears a unitard, and is a bit of a tard.

This vacation rental commercial shows Unitard crawling over a hotel counter stopping people from renting a hotel room. The point of the commercial, and of the site, is to let you know that you can often rent a whole vacation rental house somewhere for the same cost as a little hotel room. Granted, the idea of doing such a thing would never really cross my mind, so it did pique my interest.

I didn’t really chuckle at Unitard, but at the father’s reaction to him after he left. For me, that was the highlight. I adore stupid comedy more than anything, but Unitard focuses a little more on stupid and a little less on comedy. I’m not sure the commercial convinced me of anything, but it did tell me there’s a possibility of renting homes when on vacation.

What do you think of Unitard? Does this amuse you, or is it dumb? Have you ever rented a house when on vacation? Did you even know you could?

It does have one thing going for it… any commercial is better than this one.

I wear eyeglasses – everyone knows that. I get complimented frequently on my main pair of specs, a fancy red/black/blue set of Armani frames that totally cost an arm and a leg. Fortunately they were a gift for my mother. While having unique glasses is great and garners a lot of positive attention, paying hundreds of dollars for them isn’t always the best. I mean, attention certainly has a price… but everything has its limits.

Recently I was told about this post that discusses Zenni Optical and their extremely inexpensive eyeglasses. How cheap? Prescription glasses start at $8 and go up to about $40. Crazy talk!

Sure, you can’t get Armani glasses like mine from them, but seriously – $8.00! Most of us are constantly looking for a bargain. You can find some frames that look just as good as the designer names but cost a tiny bit of the price. It’s definitely possible with Zenni. If you’re in the market for some new specs but have a tight budget like most of us, give them a look. Bifocal lenses and all those fancy coatings are also available for a slightly additional price. You’re guaranteed to not have to spend $500 to get yourself a nice pair of glasses.

Hello, readers. I wanted to put up a short post telling you about a new site I launched:

www.itsfreeoncraigslist.com

You may have seen the couple posts here on Goatmoose called “The Mysteries of Craigslist’s Free Stuff Section.” This website is an entire site dedicated to the awesome garbage people give away for free using craigslist. Go check it out, and tell your pals.

Dragon Age: Origins is an epic BioWare game. For years, few games have consumed me the way Dragon Age has eaten the past several weeks of my life. Having invested 120+ hours over several playthroughs and having nabbed all but one achievement (which is rumored to be glitched), I feel confident in giving suggestions for how to nab the many achievements available in the game. There are a good many, some of which will require mad amounts of time, but with the right resources they are all attainable no matter what your skill level.

Since there are an infinite number of ways to play the game, tailor your character and progress through the story, any suggestions on this page are by no means the ONLY way to get an achievement. Having played the game with every character type and having seen the story from each angle, I will merely suggest routes by which I unlocked the points myself. If you have a suggestion to add or a different/better/easier way to unlock something, please let me know via the comments and I’ll toss it in the post.

**There will be some spoiler stuff within this list, so be aware.**