Deep Cool Captain 240EX AIO Cooler

 

 

Product links:
Captain 240EX (white): http://amzn.to/2oqcHrI
Captain 240EX (red): http://amzn.to/2pluxt2

Fractal Design: Define C

MicroATX
Very roomy inside. Great for Airflow while still very quiet!
Side and front panels are lined sound dampening material.
Room for 5 drives.
5 PCI Slots.
Can get with or without window.
Built in PSU Shroud.
Fractal Design Define C – http://amzn.to/2jCC8W4

 

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ITX Gigabyte H110N

This motherboard is the perfect board for a budget build. In fact, I used it in my ITX budget build that you can find here: https://caitlinv3.com/index.php/2017/04/07/itx-budget-gaming-pentium-g4560/

Brand: Gigabyte
Model: H110N
CPU Socket: LGA 1151
RAM: DDR4 2133
Max Memory: 32 gb (2 slots)
Form Factor: ITX

Amazon link with US Prices: http://amzn.to/2lzfUUk


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Books to Movies 2017

Anytime I hear about a movie releasing that’s based on a book, I try with all of my might to read the book first. Once you see the movie, it’s impossible to go back and read the book and not picture the actors from the movie or anticipate the plot. It’s more or less ruined.. not in a bad way, just that there’s no way to unsee what you’ve seen.

A few titles I’ve done this with most recently:

Room by Emma Donoghue: great book great movie
The Revenant by Michael Punke: FANTASTIC book. Read in one sitting. Ok movie (they changed a bunch, but acting was good)
The Martian by Andy Weir: great book great movie
Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins: I could not get through this book so I didn’t even bother with the movie (which received terrible reviews)
Inferno by Dan Brown: I loved this book, although many did not. Heard the movie was terrible, so I didn’t bother. Shame.. I love Tom Hanks.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: I liked neither
The Fault in our Stars by John Green: great book but even better movie – a rare occurrence

Here are some titles of book to movie adaptations coming in 2017 that I’ll be checking out:

The Circle by Dave Eggers – very excited for this
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The Gunslinger by Stephen King – started it a while ago, but found it hard to get through. Just me? I’ll give it another go.
The Empire of a Thousand Planets (Valerian) by Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin – not sure about this one
The Shack by William P. Young – read this a long time ago and want to re-read before the movie
It by Stephen King – one of my all time favorite King books. If I had the time, I’d read it again, but have you seen how long it is!?
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin – never heard of it, but fantastic actors and good book reviews
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie– ashamed to say I’ve never read an Agatha Christie book..
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls – started this book a while ago, time to finish
The Handmaids Tale by Margret Atwood

 

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Books to check out: Hugo Awards 2017

I’ve vaguely heard of the Hugo Awards before, most likely seeing it mentioned next to an author on Amazon, but I’ve never really looked into them. If you’re not familiar with awards, let me save you a click. This is from wikipedia:

“The Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and were officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards until 1992.”

As a fan of both Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, reading about the Hugo awards definitely piqued my interest. The only problem was that I had never heard of ANY of the books nominated for Best Novel. So that made me think.. what the heck am I missing?? Why have I not heard of the books nominated for awards in a genre I love?! So I looked them all up on Amazon and they are ALL highly reviewed but with a relatively low amount of reviews. So I guess the titles just haven’t touched a large audience? Regardless I decided to see if they made the list for a reason and added all of the Hugo nominees (at least for Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story) to a list. We’ll see how many I can get through before the winners are announced at this years Wondercon on August 11th. If you’re interested in joining me on this journey of discovery, please let me know and we can start a Hugo book club (or something). I’d be very interested in finding others who have also read these titles.

For full list of all categories and nominees: http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2017-hugo-awards/

Here’s the shortened list of the titles I’ll be checking out:

Best Novel

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)


A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)


Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)


 Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)


The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)


Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

Best Novella

The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (Tor.com publishing)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson (Tor.com publishing)
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing)
Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency)
A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com publishing)
This Census-Taker, by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador)

Best Related Work

The Geek Feminist Revolution, by Kameron Hurley (Tor Books)
The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)
The View From the Cheap Seats, by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow / Harper Collins)
The Women of Harry Potter posts, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)

Best Graphic Story

Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

 

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My Most Anticipated Games 2017

Considering I’m writing this in April, let’s forget about the first 3 months of 2017 and set our eyes to the remainder. Why does this list seem so short? I actually can’t answer that. It seems as though not many games that fit my tastes are releasing in 2017 (?) or maybe have just not been announced yet. Hopefully, we’ll get some good ‘surprise’ indie games to fill the gaps. This list will be updated as I come across more titles releasing this year. If you know of any I missed, please let me know!

All games are for PC unless otherwise notated.

April

Outlast 2  – April 25
What Remains of Edith Finch – April 25
Little Nightmares  – April 28

May

Prey – May 5

August

Middle-earth: Shadow of War – August 22

September

Destiny 2  – September 8

Unscheduled 2017 Releases

Crackdown 3
Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4,XBOX)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

 

For a full list, not edited by my personal taste bias, I suggest checking out Game Informer’s full list for 2017. It has it all (or seems to at least).
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/01/13/2017-video-game-release-schedule.aspx

 

 

Fractal Design: Nano S

Nano S: http://amzn.to/2kAHj4q


ITX Budget Build housed by the beautiful Nano S from Fractal Design.

Fractal Design Nano S next to the Define C

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