T-Minus 5 days

Next Monday Jenny and I are stepping into the realm of home-ownership, and I think we're both partly excited and partly freaked out. The drive to work is going to be long, as I've explained to everyone that I've talked to about the move, but I don't mind. I'll find a way that isn't too frustrating and just listen to my podcasts. The house is gorgeous, the previous owners really did a good job updating and modernizing the place, with several key touches we both love. I'm not a huge outdoors guy, but even I can't help but love the screened in porch off the kitchen. I can't wait to see what Betty makes of it, either. This will be her first move, besides coming home with us, so we'll have to see what kind of trouble she can find in the new place.
In gaming news, I'm still playing Red Faction, and still loving it. There's just something so entertaining about blowing things up, or driving large vehicles through things until they blow up. I still load up Plants vs Zombies occasionally as well, which I found great fun. I've never really gotten into the tower defense genre, but PvZ isn't quite the same, it has that Popcap magic that turns it into digital crack. Crack that I can't seem to quit.

Get your ass to Mars

So I've put a couple of hours into Red Faction: Guerrilla, and I'm really enjoying it. It's basically an open world game with varied missions and and lots of vehicles, except you're on Mars. Grand Theft Auto: Cydonia Stories, if you like. The game also doesn't require you to have played previous RF games, although there are some returning characters, if you count the savior-turned-corrupt corporation Earth Defence Force as a character. Yep, the bad guys in Guerrilla are the good guys from the first game, now a fascist state with the standard laundry list of human rights violations, torture, and death squads.
You play Alec Mason, a miner who takes a personal interest in joining the titular rebellion, due to events in an opening cutscene that any video gamer or even movie fan will see coming a mile away. From then on, the destruction starts, and what glorious destruction it is. The best way to take back the planet from the EDF is to destroy their facilities and buildings, and you use all manner of tools to do so. The structures come down as you'd expect, take out a few supports, and the whole thing will usually collapse under its own weight. You start with a sledgehammer and some remote charges, and I honestly haven't found a better way to cause havoc, even though the rocket launcher provides some thrills. You may also drive one of several vehicles into buildings, which cause massive structural damage in their own right.
I could go on about the missions, or the fun I've been having just driving around the various areas, but I should get this posted for now. Maybe I'll go into more detail in another post, if I ever get back to a regular schedule.

So MadWorld got sent back after about 4 days, and Red Faction: Guerilla is on its way to me. MadWorld just didn't really do anything for me, I tried to lose myself in the brainless violence and art style, but it just became too repetitive after a few levels. Who knew jamming a street sign through someone's neck could get repetitive? Well I guess we can thank MadWorld for that, at least. Mass Effect completely dominated my time during the break between Gamefly shipments, and now I have a save game with my Paragon character that doesn't have the mistakes I made the first time through. (I'm making this spoiler-free, since I know at least one person who reads this hasn't seen that part of the game yet). I have another character started, but I don't know how far I'll take that, and now I've got a ton of Fallout 3 DLC to play.

With the new Broken Steel add-on, the game can continue after the "ending", and corrects a simple mistake that made the choice at the end seem arbitrary and stupid. Why go into a deadly irradiated room and die for the good of all, when you can send your hulking super-mutant follower in for you, considering he's completely resistant to radiation? Anyway, I started that yesterday and am now plowing through Operation Anchorage as well. It's nice to be back using my main character in Fallout, I wasn't that big of a fan of the new one I had started a while back. I am such a chronic restarter, I swear.

Also in gaming news, Machinarium is now up for pre-order. I'll have to consider it, the screens and video look excellent.

Hopefully more updates soon, I want to get back to writing here!

Games that start with the letter "M"

So as you can see over on the right side of the page, I started playing Mass Effect again. I won't name names, but a certain someone I know started to play, and I couldn't resist loading up my uncompleted save. I'm going through the game this time as a Renegade, which is space-language for "jerk", having already completed it on Paragon, ("space-hippie"). At least this way once Mass Effect 2 comes out, I'll have a couple of different characters in the stable to choose from, as Bioware has stated that your ME1 exploits will have a bearing on the universe in the sequel. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can load up your "Shepard" and continue on in ME2.
I also just received MadWorld from Gamefly, and I've spent maybe an hour in the futuristic blood-sport-themed Wii game. Yep, it's a violent, vulgar beat-em-up on the most family-friendly console ever released, (if you're counting, the tally of hyphens is now seven). So far pretty enjoyable, but I've got to get my arm back in Wii-shape, which is to say, used to making sudden waggle motions. I was getting a bad case of Wii-Elbow, yesterday after about a half hour. Still, a game where you can slam a tire over someone, jam a street sign through their neck, and then impale them on a wall of spikes is worth a little ligament-tearing, (ten).

Shock & awe

So I finished inFamous and sent it back to Gamefly. I was going to write a review of it here, but Yahtzee actually did a much better job than I would have, and I agree with most of what he says. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, the protagonist's abilities were pretty unique and used in interesting ways, and the story had some decent writing. Not sure I would have bought it, but then, that's why I'm paying $15 a month to Gamefly. I realized looking at the games I have queued up for the rental service to send me, I have at least two more "open-world" games in there, namely Prototype and Red Faction: Guerilla. I'm a little nervous about getting those games next, after just finishing inFamous. I don't want to get burned out on the format of being able to run around and take missions all over the place. Plus I may miss inFamous' wire sliding once I'm running around on foot in Red Faction. I suppose I could hop in vehicles in that case, though. I don't know, I'm just afraid of judging a similar game against the one I just finished. Maybe I should move Punch-Out! to the top of the list and be done with it.

Up and inFamous

Well so far so good for the Gamefly account. I had inFamous up at the top of my queue, but it was telling me it had low availability, (probably on account of it being new), so I wasn't expecting to get that one for a while. I don't know if it was because I was a brand new account, but the next day inFamous was on its way to me, and only took one day in the mail. If the service level stays like this, I'll stick with using them for my game rentals for sure. Still enjoying inFamous, apart from a couple of frustrating missions, the game is extremely fun. They do tend to throw a lot of bad guys at you all at once, but you are pretty ridiculously over-powered, so there's usually a way to win.
I also finished The Lost & Damned downloadable content for GTA:4, speaking of throwing a lot of enemies at you. I didn't realize that I was literally one mission away from completing it when I stopped a while back. So I logged on and plowed through the final mission and that was it. Pretty good stuff, I'm looking forward to the next batch of DLC for the game.
Last weekend we went and saw Pixar's Up in theaters, and once again, it didn't disappoint. Jenny and I were trying to determine what it is about their movies that makes us love them so much, and honestly, awesome technical and graphics prowess notwithstanding, it's really the heart the movies have that engages you. There have been parts in several of Pixar's releases that genuinely affect us emotionally, and I think when a movie can do that, when it can make you have an emotional reaction, it has you. We also saw it in Disney Digial 3D, and while Jenny wasn't a huge fan, I thought the technology and perceived depth was pretty cool. Especially if you have kids, I would take them to see the 3D showing, although be warned that it's more expensive.
Anyway, that's my post for today, tons of other stuff going on that I don't have time to write about right now!

Yeah yeah, I know

I said I wouldn't let the blog drop off, but I haven't posted since the 5th, and this post will be ridiculously short (that's what she said). It's not that I don't have lots to say, I just haven't found the time to type anything I feel worthy of putting up here. For now here is an interesting discussion of Facebook in the workplace over at the Gamers with Jobs forums. More soon, I hope.

Final day

So today we see the final results of Round 2 of the Fat Bastards contest. I don't have high hopes that I lost any more from last week, in fact I'm pretty worried that I'm going to be up for the last weigh-in. I'm not sure what has been going on lately, but my eating has been worse than it should be, even though Jenny and I are now doing the Couch to 5K program. So the exercise is fine, I just need to get the eating under control and I'll be fine.
Lots of video game news, as the E3 blitz of information continues. I'd recommend checking out Giant Bomb for all the trailers and announcements, since I'm not really going to cover them much here. In personal gaming news, I just signed up for a Gamefly account yesterday. Time to see if it's worth the money to have rented games shipped to me instead of hoping they're in at Family Video. So far I've got mostly new games in my queue, which unfortunately affects my chances of getting them. I'll probably throw a couple of older titles I missed in there, just so I'm getting my $15 a month's worth. Anyway, just a short post this morning, as I'm running out of time. Better than no post at all, which has been the case most of this week.

Maybe tomorrow

No post today, as this week is trying to kill me at work. I swear, for as slow as we are, my stress level is through the roof.

Kettle corn and gravestones

So this weekend Jenny and I attended the "Reclaiming our Heritage" military encampment thingy over behind the VA, as we have the last two years. It's a pretty decent walk-around-and-look-at-stuff type of event, and of course we had to hit the "Cowboy Kettle Corn" stand that we first ran into at the Whitefish Bay Christmas Parade a couple of years ago. If you're ever at an event and you see a couple of crazy guys making popcorn in a huge kettle and ringing a dinner triangle, go buy a bag immediately, it's the best popcorn in the world.
This year we also took the lamplight tour of Woods National Cemetery, which was interesting. Basically some reenactors stand at certain stops along a tram-route and tell you stories about the people buried there. It was pretty somber, and a lot of the stories seemed specifically designed to bring out some tears. All-in-all, it was worth the money to cruise through the cemetery at 10:15 at night and listen to some people talk.
Speaking of dead people, we finally got around to seeing 28 Days Later this weekend. I found it was an enjoyable experience, and I certainly see how it has influenced other zombie media, (the fast "infected" in Left 4 Dead, even The Walking Dead seems to have cribbed from it a little). Either way, it was a good story, and touched on a few interesting situations related to a widespread pandemic. A little too much Cillian Murphy wang for my tastes, however.

[Violent metaphor]

I found this funny article about Game developer PR through Twitter, check it out.

Electric slide

So downloaded and played the demo for the upcoming PS3 exclusive inFamous, (their capitalization, not mine). I found the gameplay to be thoroughly enjoyable, and looks pretty sweet to boot. It's an open-world game that manages to combine the super-powered destruction and mobility of Crackdown with the parkour-esque movements of Assassin's creed, to excellent effect. Your electricity-based powers seem to be well-implemented, although it's interesting to note that they fall into your basic shooter weapon archetypes, (there's a low-powered fast shot, a grenade-type AoE attack, even a "force push" type move, etc.) Still, the combat feels weighty and brutal, and the movements of your character are fluid and easy to control. I really enjoy zipping along the various power-lines between buildings, you can really get some speed going. Plus from what the demo shows, they're using your electricity in interesting ways, (acting as a living "third rail" to power up and rescue an elevated commuter train). The game is out now, and is getting pretty favorable reviews. I'll probably rent it to start, but who knows, it might warrant a purchase down the road. Also on my "to rent" list: Bionic Commando for PS3, and Punch-Out for the Wii.

trailers + music = awesome

So it looks like another cool CGI movie coming this fall: "9". Tim Burton's name is attached to it, as producer, although it isn't his story this time. Apparently based on a short film by Shane Acker (who also directs the feature-length version), it certainly looks like something from the mind of the ever-creepy Burton, at least judging by the trailer I've seen so far. I urge you to go watch it, since I think it's one of the better trailers I've seen this year. The song playing over the short clip is "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria, a song I was unfamilar with until Rock Band came along and included in the tracklist. Now both Jenny and I are fans of the song, if not the artist, (honestly, I haven't tried listening to any more of their work). Either way, I think it works perfect with the dark tone that "9" seems to be exuding. Some trailers just have perfect music, even if that music generally doesn't make it into the final film, there's just something about an awesome trailer to get some chills down your spine. Here are some other examples, this trailer for Sin City or this one for Watchmen.

C:\

Gamers with Jobs has an interesting article on the future of PC gaming, a subject near and dear to my heart. Although I own all the current generation consoles, I still come back to PC to play a ton of my games.
There are some titles that generally work out better with a controller in your hand (mostly franchise leaders like Mario or Zelda), but for first-person shooters and the like, there's nothing like a mouse and keyboard. Games like Fallout 3 or Bethesda's previous entries in the Elder Scrolls series also lend themselves well to the PC, simply for the huge mod community and editing tools packaged with the game. Graphically the newer systems are more than capable of keeping up with mid-range video cards, with the highest-end PC cards costing more than a Playstation 3.
Still, I think PC gaming is here to stay, even if it starts to be the exclusive domain of the hardcore strategy player, I'll be there.

if-then Fantasy

I was listening to the March 31st edition of the Giant Bombcast (yep, I'm still that behind) on my way in to work this morning, and they were discussing Bioware's upcoming RPG Dragon Age, and it's combat AI systems. This got me thinking about another game that had a really interesting way to fight, that I unfortunately never finished: Final Fantasy XII.
Like previous games in the franchise, you have a party of characters with you when you do battle, but in a departure from normal turn-based formula, you can assign AI scripts (called "gambits" in the game) to all or some of them, making them essentially AI controlled. This has been done in other games, setting basic behaviors (attack, defend, etc) for your other characters, but not with the depth that XII has.
You essentially set up a list of if-then statements and put them in descending order of importance for each character. You can do this for every character in your party, essentially making a battle play out with no input at all from you. This is a far cry from the old days where you input each party member's action, although that option is still available for purists.
So you might do the following for a healer-type character:

• if party member status is dead---cast resurrect
• if party member health less than 20%---use high potion
• if party member health less than 50%---cast heal
• attack (you can specify which enemy: closest, weakest, or the one the lead character is attacking)

This puts highest priority on resurrecting anyone killed during the battle, if no one is dead on the healer's turn, it moves on and looks for anyone with less than 20% health, and so on. It's really a deep system, and you can stack at least 10 commands (probably more, I can't remember) for each character. I usually played it with me in full control of Vaan, the main protagonist, and everyone else set up with scripts. You unlock more and more options for scripts as the game progresses as well, so that opens it up even more.
From what I've seen of Final Fantasy XIII so far, I can't tell if they're going to use the same system or not, but I really hope so. I keep telling myself I should go back and try to finish XII, but I don't think I'll have time. Too bad, it was fun while it lasted.

Star Trek

So last Friday, Jenny and I went to see Star Trek, and I think overall we enjoyed it. There were some minor gripes, (and one major one), but we both felt it was worth seeing. Unfortunately, I can't really analyze with any depth without going into spoiler territory, so if you don't want to know what happens, stop reading after this paragraph.

First off, the good stuff: The ship-to-ship combat was visceral and exciting, the ship designs kept the classic look with some new trappings. The feeling of the movie was pretty fun overall, lots of action and some good laughs, (mostly from Scotty). I think the casting was done well, everyone seemed to fit their role, and the acting was pretty believable. The new, updated versions of the characters seem to have some new depth to them (with the exception of Chekov, who is still just a one-joke character). They really play up Spock's trouble with his half-human ancestry, which was interesting, and overall I think he was probably my favorite character. They lay on the whole "Kirk is a rebel, a loose cannon" a little heavy, and that brings me into the parts that I didn't care for.

There is a completely unnecessary scene with a horrible young version of Kirk (featured in one particular trailer for the movie). I suppose that showing the differing childhood experiences of Spock and Kirk was a good idea, but I feel in the car chase scene it was handled poorly. I thought that the enemy ship looked very specifically designed to be an "evil" ship, all grasping tines and organic shapes. The villian Nero mentions that it was a mining vessel before the catastrophic events that form his backstory, but it's hard to believe. The number one complaint both of us had coming out was the inclusion of Old Spock. For a complete series reboot, I don't want to see any of the original cast members in anything other than a cameo role, and even then as a different character, just a wink and nod to "hey there's so and so in the background". I understand what their intentions were with Nimoy, it was to explain to all the trekkies how we can have this new crew go on to do things non-canonical, ("it's an alternate timeline", again heavy-handed delivery there), since Old Spock is the reason things are different now. But I really wish we could do without time travel. It's been done, I wanted an all new crew in an all new universe. Which it seems like we'll get now, I am actually really excited to see where it goes from here, now that we've got the origin of everyone out of the way.

Anyway, to wrap it up, I could write more but I'm out of time, I'd say 4 stars out of 5.

Sappy post ahoy!

So my wife Jenny will be graduating from MATC's Sign Language Interpreter program next Thursday, and I'm so proud of her. I really hope our kids inherit her love of school, I certainly don't want them taking after their deadbeat father. What amazes me is her desire to make a difference in people's lives, to provide a service that is sorely needed and frequently overlooked in our society.
I never once considered that in my choice of career, even in the childhood dreams of Fighter Pilot or whatever, not once did I consider what effect my job would have on other people. I wanted to fly planes (ironic now, considering my ever-increasing fear of flying), not because it would benefit my country or anything, but because it would be cool and make me lots of money. My thoughts were typical, how much will I make, and how much will I enjoy it. Usually the one being proportional to the other, (I.E. the more I get paid, the more crap I'll put up with).
I'm hoping that Jenny will also find herself one of those people who truly love what they do for a living, unlike the vast majority of us. Don't get me wrong, I have no one to blame but myself if I don't like my career choice, the power is in my hands to change it. I feel that power diminishes every year I get older, but there's no saying I can't up and change my life at thirty-four.
This sucks, I'm trying to write about my awesome wife, and I keep digressing into my own career pitfalls. Anyway, I really can't wait to see how well she does in her chosen profession, and I wish for her all the happiness and success of doing a job as rewarding as interpreting for the deaf. I know I'm extremely proud of the person she is, and I'll be cheering the loudest next week when she's walking across the stage. Although I may just yell "TAKE IT OFF!" and get kicked out.

What's in the fridge?

Check this out, courtesy of Twitter.

Writers write

And the rest of us don't, at least not when work is piling up and we end up not having time. I know I'm making excuses, but the two or three of you out there that actually read this will have to forgive me.
So glad The Amazing Race is over, I'll just say that for now. We really were only watching it because there was a deaf contestant, otherwise we usually don't go in for reality TV at all. Anyway, that's all the news worth reporting right now.

Updates

I've got John Davison's blog linked on the right now, so peruse that if you're interested. In gaming, after reading GWJ's write-up of Cryostasis, I went and downloaded the demo. My impressions: The combat seems like it has the potential to be frustrating, depending on how tough the enemies get, simply because most of the weapons seem pretty weak. The setting and how the game handles temperature is definitely worth seeing. There's a palpable sense of relief when you flip the switch in a frozen room and it fills with light and heat. Huge huge system requirements on this game though, it was chugging on my system, and I've got a pretty decent video card. Otherwise, I think the link posted above sums up what interested me in the first place.
In life news, work is stressful and I don't feel like I get enough time when I'm at home, so pretty much normal. I can't wait to have kids, then I'm sure my free time will double!

brainsss

More zombie discussion. I admit I'm inundated with the subject matter right now, so it's on my mind as of late. Still really enjoying World War Z, it still keeps the surprises coming. There are a bunch of different things that have happened that made me stop and say "I never thought about that." Brooks really does present the situation in a fashion that it's just believable enough to happen.
Good stories are like that, if you use a lot of truth and existing knowledge, the one nugget of fiction will hold up. Just ask anyone that reads Dan Brown (overrated in my opinion, but his following cannot be denied). So many people got caught up in the real life Opus Dei and Illuminati stuff, that the entirely made-up stuff just got largely ignored. Putting in a large chunk of reality always helps sell your bullshit.
I think that's the attraction to Science Fiction for me, there's a lot of what-if speculation going on. Add that to existing science technology, move it forward along a predicted progression, and bam! you've got warp drive.
For World War Z, take a lot of viral outbreak and political turmoil scenarios, switch disease with zombies, and you've got a pretty cool look at how it could happen in our modern world. Highly recommended reading.

Zombies

They're everywhere these days.
Not creeping through your hedges or shambling down the hallway of the battered cabin you're hiding in, but in the media.
The undead have been on my mind a lot lately, due in no small part to the fact that I'm currently reading Max Brooks' excellent World War Z, as well as playing Popcap's newest form of crack, Plants vs Zombies on my PC.
The former presents itself as "an oral history of the zombie war", and is told in the journalistic style of The Good War, by Studs Terkel. I'm only a few chapters in, but already I've encountered mechanisms and scenarios that are unique in zombie-related fiction, to my delight. The Walking Dead is another really good read, albeit fairly disturbing, and even Marvel Zombies has held my interest for the few issues I've read.
Plants vs Zombies is another game from the creators of Bejeweled and the highly recommended Peggle, (seriously, go play Peggle right now if you haven't already). It's a mixture of puzzle game and tower defense, as you plant flowers and mushrooms in rows to defend against waves of the restless dead across your lawn. Riddled with the kind of humor one can expect, (there is one type of zombie that looks like Michael Jackson in Thriller), it's a pretty fun time-waster. be warned though, it has a difficulty curve much higher than Popcap's usual fare.
They are the consummate bad guys, from Zombies ate my Neighbors, to Left 4 Dead, the shambling masses have been the antagonists of scores of video games.
It's interesting to note that zombies tend to have specific attributes common across all portrayals, ones that most Americans my age could recite if asked. I mean, who doesn't know to shoot a zombie in the head to stop it? Or that to get bitten by a zombie is a one-way ticket to joining them? I venture to say that most people my age, if faced with a zombie outbreak, would have seen enough movies and played enough games to at least have an idea of what to do. The ridiculousness of it all dampens any real fear zombies may have originally engendered.
My point being, zombies are here to stay, as American as apple pie.

no crayfish left behind

I'll apologize in advance for this post, because I'm about to get preachy.
Yesterday as I was walking down the road between buildings at work, I noticed a live crayfish ambling down the street near the creek. He looked pretty dry, and not knowing a thing about a crustacean's ability to survive out of water,(apparently they're fine as long as they can keep their gills wet occasionally), I scooped him up with some papers I was carrying and got him back in the water.
As I did this some of my co-workers walking with me made comments that reinforced what I was already thinking: none of them would have stopped and taken the 30 seconds to do it. It seemed their overall attitude was "why?", when mine was "why not?". I mean seriously, it cost me nothing except my time.
I think it's part of a larger problem that I have. Most people I know use mouse-traps instead of live-catch traps, because it's just easier. With a live-catch, you have to take the mouse somewhere and let it go, preferably far away from your house, since they'll just find their way back. Why do that when you can snap their little necks and toss the whole package in the garbage?
The weird thing is, I'm not a huge animal-rights activist or anything, I'm certainly not a vegetarian by any means, but I do have a line that I try not to cross. I try not to kill an animal just because I'm too lazy to do the right thing. That philosophy could apply to so many things in the world, so many attitudes and beliefs stem from taking the easy way out, but that's another post altogether.

Back in the saddle

I've broken the promise I made to myself about this blog, I didn't write for a couple of days. No big deal, I still plan to update it regularly, I just don't want to go down the path of putting it off. This is supposed to be some sort of writing exercise, after all.
I finished The Rise of Endymion late last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I heartily recommend the entire series to sci-fi fans, or readers in general. It was one of those experiences with media that stays with you, I'm sure I'll be thinking about the books for a while going forward.
I also listened to the first episode of the Out of the Game podcast, with similar results. I had a long drive to see friends in Madison and decided to indulge myself, (I'd been putting it off, like a good book that you know you're going to love). Not to go off too far into the podcast fan-boy territory, but it was a really good show. The sound quality could have been better, and I'm not sure what they were going for with the intro music, but the content was well worth it.
The theme was Born before Digital, and was all about Facebook, other social networks, and the internet in general changing the way we interact with people, for better or worse. For those of us who were around before all this stuff, myself included, it's quite a good listen. I'm also glad they're keeping it off-topic discussion for now, I've got enough podcasts to listen to that focus soley on gaming.
Anyway, the clock on the wall (or rather the clock in the bottom-right of my screen), tells me it's time to get to work.

Start a revolution.

Another awesome game on the horizon: Brutal Legend, by Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer. Watch the trailer. Also this interview with Tim, where he admits to having the same excellent philosophy about writing as Stephen King.

Mumorpuger

I received an email from Ncsoft a couple days ago, telling me that they're going to reactivate my City of Heroes account until this coming Sunday, I'm sure in an attempt to get me to sign up for a monthly fee.
It occurred to me that I haven't ever paid for this game. I got a free one-month trial initially, which I let expire. After that there have been several of these few-day reactivations that I've done. I generally download it each time, play for the time they give me for free, and quit when they want me to sign up.
The game itself is standard MMORPG (Mumorpuger, thanks Yahtzee) fare, meaning the really fun stuff only starts happening when you team up with others. Since I tend to play my games in a solitary fashion, (my brief time with EVE Online being the one exception), I tend to get bored after a while of grinding out the single-player missions. These usually involve go-here, kill-that, and haven't really provided me with incentive to pay $12 or so each month to continue after my free time expires.
Every once in a while, I feel the urge to reinstall Guild Wars, or even EVE, but then I remember what it was like to play them. I found it enjoyable at the time, even paying for EVE for several months, but eventually the magic wears off. As with just about any of these games, you will eventually need to work with other people to have a good time, there's only so far you can solo. Trying to coordinate online gaming with other people requires a time investment that I'm not willing to make, and that's coming from a hard-core gamer.
I have never tried World of Warcraft, for fear of it's heroin-like effects drawing me into the realm of poop-socks. I've logged innumerable hours in single-player rpg's, so I know that an MMO game that has lots of solo-content, (as Blizzard's epic success supposedly does), would be dangerous to try, even on a free trial.
Guild Wars I would consider going back to only because there is no monthly fee, so I'm a reinstall away from my old characters and items. Too bad the game really is more focused on PvP (Player vs Player) combat than the RPG experience, a fact that keeps turning me off.
EVE Online tempts me back with its sci-fi trappings and meta experience, although if I did go back in, I would probably join Goonfleet, (a player run corporation founded by members of the Something Awful forums, commonly referred to as Goons). EVE's high level of player ownership can be enticing, and since corporations can form alliances, build space stations, ships, and anything else in the game, the economy is almost entirely player-driven. This opens the door for all manner of interesting gameplay, such as the following example from wikipedia:

"Piracy (in the ship-to-ship sense) is part of the game, as is protection racketeering, theft, and ransom. One infamous example is a corporate infiltration and heist where one corporation infiltrated a target corporation over the course of nearly a year. They then performed a virtual assassination on the target's CEO and proceeded to steal billions of ISK (EVE's fictional currency) worth of corporate property to which they had gained access. Events of this nature are debated both inside the game world and in the media.
Such dangers are an inherent part of Eve Online's virtual economy and thus are purposely not dealt with by the developers. Players are expected to make financial decisions based (among other factors) on the possibility of other players' financial malpractice, much as in real-life economics."

So it seems like there's fun to be had, if you're willing to put in the time and money. I don't think I'll be re-subscribing anytime soon, because even as interesting as that sounds, I've got a bit too much going on as it is.

Welcome to my final boss lair

Just a quick note today to say, if you haven't read the Adventures of Dr. McNinja, you really should. I've got half a mind to buy the first couple collections that are out, even though it's all available free online. Heck, even the alt text for the comic page images is usually chock full of jokes.
Anyway, not much else going on for me, just really busy at work, (hence the short blog post). Two more days until weigh-in, plus I've got at least two events coming up this weekend where I'm going to have to be careful with the eating.

On the subject of eating right, here are a couple of quick ideas if you really need to go out for lunch:
Chipotle: Burrito Bowl (no shell), shredded beef, fajita veggies instead of beans, no cheese, no sour cream, with salsa comes in at 350 calories
McDonald's: Bacon Ranch salad with grilled chicken, with southwest dressing is only 360 calories.

Both of those options give you lots of food and flavor without the huge caloric damage.

shoryuken!

Call it a sign of aging, but I just don't have the patience to learn to be good at fighting games anymore. I've noticed overall that the level of difficulty I'm willing to put up with has been dropping, but this is the first time that an entire genre has been so out of my league.

What happened was, I rented Street Fighter 4. I have fond memories of playing SF 2 in arcades when I was younger, and even a bit on XBox Live Arcade when Super Street Fighter 2 came out a couple of years ago, but this was an absolute travesty. It was embarassing, I had to take the difficulty setting down to easiest before I could even get past the final boss. I used to be able to beat M. Bison in the arcade, given a few quarters.

I can't blame the game, even though popular opinion about Seth, the final boss, is that he's full of cheap, unblockable moves. I simply don't want to take the time to practice the new focus attacks or ultra combos. I rely on my history with the series and fall back on playing exactly the way I used to, using the same characters as ever. This is why I never even bothered to try playing online, it would be an exercise in frustration.

The whole time I was banging my head against the game, I was thinking that I could be playing something else. Fighting games shouldn't be that hard for me to give up, I haven't really been a huge fan in several years. I think the last one I really played seriously was Tekken 3. So far I'm still good to get headshots in FPS games, or grind for levels in RPG's.
As far as fighting games go, I guess I'll just sit back and remember the glory days.

Your head a-splode

So yesterday I managed to get or give myself one of the worst migraine headaches I've ever had. Not quite as bad as the legendary Dark Knight migraine of '08, but it did have the added horror of causing me to do something I haven't done in probably 20 years.
Yesterday I threw up, puked, vomited, hurled, you get the general idea. Truth be told it wasn't all that bad, and at least I felt better after the fact. Too bad it didn't get rid of the headache, but at least it took care of the nausea.
I suppose I should extrapolate on the DKM of '08, since no one really knows about it except Jenny. We went and saw the Dark Knight on opening weekend, and about halfway through I started to get a headache. This actually happens quite often during theater visits for me, (less likely when watching a comedy or light-hearted fare, maybe I'm clenching my teeth). Well there was no way I was going to get up and leave in the middle of the best Batman film to date, so I sat through the whole remainder of the movie with my head increasingly feeling like it could be mined for pure pain extract. Unfortunately the first Jenny found out about it was during the credits, when she found me drenched in pain-sweat and looking rather ill. I still feel bad for making her worry so much, she wanted to take me to the hospital, which I refused. Needless to say, she drove home and put me to bed. That was probably the worst headache I've ever had, and still no vomiting, so I'm not sure what happened yesterday.
I'm sure the fact that I consider regurgitation to be one of the most vile things your body will involuntarily do contributed to my long, successful (until yesterday) battle to not do it. I would pop Tums like candy to force down the upset stomach feeling, even though I'm sure ridding myself of whatever was making me sick at the time would have probably been quicker. I'm not sure where my reluctance originated, although I recently found out that my mom feels the same way, so maybe I got it from her.
"Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you", indeed.

More Green

Jeff Green finally posted some updates. Check them out.

Inventory woes

Well, we're doing our annual Physical Inventory at work today and probably part of tomorrow, so I'll be spending the majority of my time counting and verifying counts. Fun, fun, fun! On a short break now, I forgot what it was like to stand up most of the day. My feet are sore, and I've only been at it for 2 hours or so. The rest of the day is not looking good.

Friday Pick

Next up on my wish-list: Zeno Clash. Looks bizarre and fun, let's hope it plays well. I'm thinking I should have preordered it on Steam when it was only $10. It's still only $20, but I feel like a chump for not getting it half-off when I had the chance. There have been some really creative things coming out of the indie gaming scene lately, I think it will benefit the industry as a whole. Speaking of which, go download the soundtrack to another indie game I've mentioned: World of Goo. Free from the composer's website, and some cool music to boot.

307

Down another two, and here's another chart.

Amused to Death

I just hope, if I move people and they listen to something and they get a shiver down their spine, then I've fulfilled my function. If I make them think about something, about their lives and about the way they relate to other human beings then that's an added bonus.
-Roger Waters, Rockline Interview, February 1993

I've been listening to the album recently, and I found a good quote from an interview he did promoting it. I'm not as huge of a fan of AtD as I am of Pros and Cons, but it's still a really solid album with some memorable songs. "What god wants" is pretty awesome to play in Audiosurf, just because I can't have a post that doesn't reference video games in some fashion.

Smell your urine lately?

Today's oddity from Wikipedia concerning asparagus:

"Observational evidence from the 1950s showed that many people did not know about the phenomenon of asparagus urine. There is debate about whether all (or only some) people produce the smell, and whether all (or only some) people identify the smell.

It was originally thought this was because some of the population digested asparagus differently than others, so that some people excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and others did not. However, in the 1980s three studies from France, China and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a universal human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects all of those who could smell 'asparagus urine' could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it himself. Thus, it is now believed that most people produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only about 22% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them. "

Woohoo! I'm part of a 22% minority!

Oblivion woes

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released on 3/20/06, and was a sequel to the third game in the series, Morrowind. I mentioned in my previous post that I had some problems with this new iteration, and I'm going to go into detail about that in this one.

Right off the bat, I want to say that I still really enjoyed the game overall. I sank hours and hours into it, and went through multiple times with different character builds. Just keep that in mind as I spend the next few paragraphs bitching about it.

One of the main complaints I had about Oblivion were the leveled drops. In Morrowind you could risk entering a cave with some higher level monsters in it and find some really nice loot right from the start. Everything existed in the world already, and with the exception of certain enemies, nothing really scaled to your level. You want that full set of Daedric Armor? Have fun fighting the three Golden Saints guarding it. It also rewarded innovation, since you could use whatever means necessary to get past an obstacle far beyond your level.

The common example I always use to show how broken Oblivion was are the Highwaymen. Early on in the game, as you're walking down a footpath, a highwayman in ragged leather armor accosts you, giving you the option of paying him 200 gold, or forfeiting your life. Fast-forward 20 levels or so of character development, and as you're walking down the same path, another criminal pops out to challenge you for the right to walk in the sunshine unmolested. He hits you up for 200 gold, ignoring the fact that he's wearing Glass Armor, some of the most valuable protection in the game, all because the game leveled his equipment to match your level.
Now I could be wrong, maybe he's been saving all the gold he shakes people down for and has finally been able to afford that Glass Cuirass, (say that three times fast,) he's always wanted, but to me it seems to break the whole universe I'm supposed to be immersed in. I'm not saying I want a high-level bandit asking me for 20,000 gold, I would rather he stay in the bushes when he sees my level 20 swordsman riding down his path with a giant claymore strapped across his back.

There was no real incentive to explore in Oblivion, since you knew any loot you got from clearing out a goblin cave would only be something you could find normally. They did put a "boss" type character in some dungeons, but they still only carried the weakest of magical items. I understand you don't want to hand your players the ultimate weapon right when they start the game, but make it that risk-reward dynamic, and let me wander into places I shouldn't be.

The main quest takes you the dimensional plane of, you guessed it, Oblivion. Gates to the Elder Scrolls' version of hell have been opening around Cyrodiil, the Imperial Province, and you have to go through them to close them. I won't go into the plot of the game too much, I was mainly bringing up the Oblivion segments as another example of leveling. If you tackle the main storyling right away hell-gates and all, you'll have an easier time than if you wait until you're more powerful. I think it's more a problem with the enemy level scaling than anything though. The higher levels are exponentially more dangerous than their lower level counterparts, which doesn't sync up with your level progression.

Which brings me to another frustration, let's say you run into a wolf in the wilderness at level 1. You fight hard, but manage to bring down the beast and survive. Come back 5 levels later and you think, "I'm going to punch that wolf right in its fuzzy face with my +3 gloves of wolf-punching". But now, instead of a wolf, you see a larger, more dangerous troll running at you. Not having any hand wear of troll-related damage, you flee with your proverbial tail between your legs, (unless you're a Khajit or Argonian, in which case the tail isn't proverbial at all).

I understand that the developers want to give you a challenging experience all the way through, but I like the feeling of going back to an earlier area and having an easy time of it. That's the whole point of leveling up isn't it? In Morrowind, a rat is always a rat, but there are worse things running around other areas. In Oblivion, a wolf is only a wolf until you hit a certain level trigger, then it will never be a wolf again.

I could go on and talk about the voice acting and character discrepancies, but that's been covered before by better writers than I. Besides, I wanted to focus on the things that bothered me the most, and that's what I did.

Would you kindly...

I just realized my last post was pretty much a love letter to Morrowind, and I'm fine with that.

In other news:
This is a long read, and contains spoilers of just about every plot-twist in the game, but it's a really good analysis: http://streetlightsasfairgrounds.blogspot.com/2007/09/strangely-about-fate.html

We'll always have Balmora

Luckily I can email these posts in, as this one will probably ramble on a bit. At least this way I can continue to add more thoughts when I get time and fire it off when I'm done.
Something I brought up briefly before was what I called the "Morrowind Effect", which is a term I use to describe the sense of wonder and discovery upon playing a new style of game for the first time, such as, well, Morrowind. There have been several instances of this in my long history of playing video games, but the Elder Scrolls series is probably the best example.

Let me take you through the beginning of Morrowind.
Thunder crashes, the screen remains dark. Suddenly a disembodied voice begins speaking to you as scenes of an ashen landscape scroll past:

"They have taken you from the Imperial city's prison, to the east, to Morrowind. Fear not, for I am watchful. You have been chosen"

Really nerdy side note: I did not have to look that up. Scary huh?
You disembark in the small village of Seyda Neen, on the island of Vvardenfell, and proceed to character creation. This is handled in a way that Bethesda has since popularized: creation integrated with gameplay, (see Oblivion or Fallout 3). Basically the choices you make determine the character class they think you want to play, although it can all be customized. During the course of this, you get some basic gameplay tutorials as far as movement and interaction, and then you step out into the village proper.

At that point,the game stops telling you what to do. There is a note in your inventory to seek out Caius Cosades in the city of Balmora if you want some work, but you can happily ignore that and say, steal everything that isn't nailed down in Seyda Neen to buy some armor or weapons. Just about everything has some small value, and as long as no one sees you take it, you're solid. This is a play style popularized by my wife, who initially had aspirations to be a wizard, but ended up being a steals-all-your-stuff-and-whacks-you-in-the-face-with-a-hammer type character.

It's interesting to note that the very lack of direction some complained about in Morrowind, is the thing that I found I enjoyed the most. Just walking around the huge open world was fascinating, with all sorts of random caves and tombs to explore. I say random, but technically they were all created and laid out by the developers, and the care they gave to enemy and reward placement was apparent. The island had a ton of cities as well, all with side-quests, shops, and unique characters to interact with, not to mention the guilds and organizations you can join, just ask Jenny about the Morag Tong.

The game isn't without it's faults, of course. The standard character models are atrocious, especially by today's standards. The melee combat was relatively lackluster, (one area that Oblivion actually excels), and the main storyline isn't all that interesting. But as a pure, open-world fantasy game, I think I enjoyed it more than any other before or since.

I seem to have strayed from my main point, for sake of an example, but I kind of got into talking about Morrowind there. Basically what I'm saying is, it's hard to go home again. Even with the improvements graphically to Oblivion, I wasn't as filled with wonder as I was wandering Morrowind's lower-poly count hills. I'll go into the differences between Morrowind's game design and its sequel Oblivion's shortcomings in a future post. For the purpose of this diatribe, I'm focusing more on my internal reasons. It was the same for Grand Theft Auto 3, (the first 3D version of the franchise, I never played 1 or 2). The wonder of driving around a huge city basically doing whatever you wanted was awesome. Now you can do the same in higher-fidelity, but it doesn't have the same magic.

A lot of it is the pure refinement these later versions have, since refinement is another word for restrictions in some cases. These first forays into new territory were easily broken, and experimental at the time. In Morrowind for example, (here I go again), you could use the item crafting system to make yourself some godlike items, an ability they effectively nerfed in the sequel. Balance issues notwithstanding, I want a game to let me break it if I want to. I don't want a game with no cheat codes or console commands, they should be there if I want to abuse the system. I'm only spoiling my own fun if I cheat, so let me. I never tend to on my first run through a game, for that reason, but on subsequent playthroughs, I might want a nigh-unkillable character to run around with.

I don't mean to lay all the blame on the games themselves, a good portion of it is just the standard rule that nothing is ever as exciting as the first time you do it. Go back and load up Super Mario Brothers on the NES, I guarantee you won't be as amazed as you were the first time. I remember being younger and thinking how advanced the orginal Nintendo system was, "Two buttons? We'll never need more than that!" For reference, I believe we're up to 8 on current generation systems, not including Start and Select.

Good lord I just realized how long this post is. To anyone still reading, thanks for your time, and I hope I got across what I wanted to say. Now I've got to catch a Silt Strider to Vivec.

The Memory Remains

I started up Guitar Hero: Metallica over the weekend, and I'm enjoying it so far. I've been going through the career mode on drums, unlocking more songs as I go, and so far the difficulty hasn't spiked up too high. I am finding that I look forward more to the Metallica songs than the other artists included in the game, and I've already shared my thoughts on the non-cover versions of songs from Garage, Inc. I'm going through on the medium setting, so we'll see how far I get.
It's funny, I really haven't been listening to Metallica much in recent years, so I'm remembering songs as I go. Not that I forgot they existed, but I forgot that some were awesome. Interestingly enough, I hopped on the Metallica Bandwagon in the Load/ReLoad era, but slowly came around to the older stuff. Now some of the songs on And Justice for all are among my favorites. Unfortunately, the songs from that time in the band's history don't lend themselves well to singing, the task I invariably get stuck with at parties.
I haven't given Death Magnetic a listen, and don't even get me started on St. Anger. GH:Metallica does have songs from both of those, but they still have plenty of the good stuff as well. One interesting choice was Orion, which I'm relatively certain has no lyrics.
I wonder if anyone will volunteer to sing that one.

I didn't see Patrick Swayze anywhere.

So last Friday I drove the Soviets out of Seattle, by which I mean I finished World in Conflict. I was fairly surprised at how much I enjoyed it, since I generally don't play real-time strategy games. I think WiC appealed to me because it was a scenario that hasn't been touched on too much in video games, and it harkened back to my memories of Red Dawn in the 80's. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not the most patriotic person these days, but I still enjoy a good piece of "defend your homeland" fiction.
It may have helped that I was playing on Easy difficulty as well, as I didn't get the standard frustration I usually get with RTS games. World in Conflict also has no base building whatsoever, (unless you count automatically fortifying a control point if you have troops sitting in one, but that's just a progress bar). Mainly the gameplay goes: pick a drop zone and spend your "reinforcement points" to buy whatever combination of troops you think you'll need, click Deploy, and watch your units parachute in. Then go shoot some russians, nuke a town on American soil, etc. Anyway, I enjoyed it.
So now I've moved on to Killzone 2, which I only rented yesterday. So far, so good, although it seems to beat you over the head with the whole "we're at war, it's really fucking loud!", oh and there's lots of fucking swearing. Fuck.

The king and his men stole the queen from her bed

So lately I've had some of the music from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in my head. As in, it's pretty much all I hear as of a couple weeks ago on that internal radio station we all have. Say what you want about the movie itself, (I enjoyed it, but I've heard it called the weakest of the trilogy), Hans Zimmer's score is ten kinds of awesome.
The major thematic anthem would have to be "Hoist the Colours", which is used in several spots in the film, including the grim opening scene. I don't want to go into spoiler territory here, so I won't supply any more detail. There are also a couple of cues in the score that just have a musical quality that resonates with me. You ever have that one tune that for a reason you can't explain is just perfect?
Music is a difficult thing to talk about, because I really have no idea why a song or melody sounds good to one person, but fails to inspire anything in another. I suppose you can write it off as taste, but that's not a real explanation.
An early example of this for me was Tangerine Dream's score for Legend, I can remember getting some of those melodies getting stuck in my head for weeks at a time.
This goes for games as well, I can name off several soundtracks to games that have given me that same feeling. I have an entire folder of game music on my computer, and some of it still gets played years after the game has fallen off my playlist.
It's hard to explain the feeling I get when I hear certain music, it just sounds so right. I think soundtracks, for me, evoke the feelings that go along with the story, they complement the visuals, performances, and emotions of a scene or event.
I'll sign off for now with an example that gave me chills, I have more thoughts on this subject, but this is running long and it's late:
In Return of the King, King Theoden and the Rohirrim arrive to attack the forces of Mordor surrounding Minas Tirith, and as they charge across Pelennor field, the main theme of Rohan plays triumphantly.
Gets me every time.

Dodged a bullet

Whew! Well after being up 7 pounds this last Wednesday, I managed to bring home a loss of 1 today. I guess it helps that I haven't eaten since about 6pm yesterday, but that's normal every week for the weigh-in. I've really got to prevent ballooning up so high, so I don't have to kill myself to get back down for Friday. Even so, the needle is still moving in the right direction.

Well, thanks to a small bit of code:

Select your chart object or sheet
ALT+F11 (takes you to VBE)
CTRL+G (open immediate window)
Enter the following syntax, changing path, filename and filter type as
required.
activechart.Export "C:\temp\mychart.tif","tif"
Press Return to execute command.

I was able to export an Excel chart to an image file. So without further ado, in the interest of full disclosure, here is my progress so far:

Gaming as a spectator sport

I had a roommate at one time who didn't play many video games, but would enjoy watching me play them. Sometimes I miss that, it was cool to have an audience. Not because I wanted to show off my uber elite gaming prowess, but because just like watching a movie or show with someone, I enjoy sharing in the story, or pointing out parts I think are awesome.
I've come to realize that a large percentage of my enjoyment in entertainment media of any kind, is in sharing the experience with someone else. This ties in to recommending books/shows/movies/games to friends, and probably explains why I love all my gaming podcasts so much. I listen to them all because I want to be sitting there talking about my favorite hobby with other people like me. Anyone who knows me knows I always want to know what they thought of a particular book or movie or whatever, I guess I'm just looking for that discussion. Plus I just have a basic desire to share things that I enjoy with others.
The truth is, I don't have many friends that are gamers,(not like the pool is large to begin with), so even just having someone sitting there talking with you while you play is really fun for me.

Climbing back on the wagon

Well one more day until weigh-in, and I've got to crack down on the eating and drinking. Last night I was pushing myself at the gym because of some guilty feelings about eating too much this week. I figure it will probably be easier to just try not to give in to temptation, rather than try to make it up during the workout. An easy thing to say, but much harder to follow through on.
The good news is, even with my recent struggles, I'm still moving in the right direction. As long as the numbers keep getting smaller, I'll live with the occasional stumble.
The team dynamic in the new contest actually adds a nice level of accountability, as I do feel nervous to let the team down, or be that guy that drove our percentage up. So far Team 8 has moved up in the standings, but we have a ways to go if we're going to take down the leader. We have the potential, I'm just afraid I won't be able to get the weight off fast enough, being that we're already in the fifth week of the twelve-week contest. I know that two pounds a week is considered normal, healthy weight-loss, but I can't help wishing it would go faster.

Then again, I'm also wishing for a Tin Roof Sundae

Gritty realism vs sewage truck rampage

I remember when Saint's Row was originally announced as a launch title for the Xbox 360, and the cries of "Copycat" were heard across the internet. For the most part they were right, Saint's Row (and it's sequel) was a crime-themed, vehicular-based, sandbox game. It actually pioneered a couple of new ideas though, some of which GTA incorporated into the fourth iteration of their game (the GPS system while driving), and some that they need to, (the ability to restart from a checkpoint being the glaring one for me).
I was playing a bit more of The Lost and Damned last night, and it was very frustrating to restart missions over again with no body armor, and all your ammo at the level it was when you died. I guess I'm looking for a quick-load type situation, which I use extensively in my PC gaming.
Much has been said about the tone of GTA 4 versus Saint's Row 2, the basics being that GTA 4 took a more mature, realistic approach, while SR2 went to the exact opposite extreme. I think there's room for both, I enjoyed the gritty characters and disturbing darkness Grand Theft Auto 4, and Saint's Row 2 had huge potential for pure immature fun.
It may be telling that I own GTA 4 and have only rented the Saint's Row series so far. With so much hype around the release of Grand Theft Auto, I ended up picking up the day of release, but I do feel that I was slightly disappointed with it overall. It was an excellent game, but I couldn't help feeling like I'd been there before. Once again, it's hard to go back to the magic I felt upon seeing GTA 3 for the first time. This particular problem will be the subject of a much longer post, I'm sure. We'll call it the "Morrowind Effect".

I will eat your face

Well, according to Anthony on Rebel FM, a cat will start to eat you up to 48 hours after you're dead, while a dog may wait up to two weeks. I'll make sure to tell Jenny that before she goes on her next school trip. "Don't worry if something happens to me, at least Betty won't starve." I'm sure she'll think that's hilarious, especially considering she reads this blog. Hi honey!

The Hero of the day

My day has been filled with phone calls so far, including one this morning from my vendor in France. I should have guessed by the incoming number, (not that I recognized it, but it was really long). Still, it was pretty interesting to know that I'm speaking with someone halfway around the world from me, language barriers notwithstanding. The fault lies with me, however, as I can only claim to know one language, while my contacts there can speak at least three that I know of. Even so, the heavily accented English can be a trial to understand sometimes.
In other news, I got a really good deal on Guitar Hero: Metallica from Newegg. You can't beat $12 cheaper than retail, with free shipping. The developer Neversoft has gone on record as saying the difficulty of this new game is higher than a normal GH game, just based on the source material. I believe it, the Metallica tracks on both GH: World Tour and Rock Band are some of the toughest songs to beat. While I don't have much use for any Metallica albums past S&M, at least the song selection for the game is quite robust, with many tracks from the older stuff. My only concern is, as the guy who gets stuck doing most of the male singing parts, I'm going to be tearing my voice apart growling and shouting through most of their early work. I also wish the Metallica covers of several Garage, Inc. songs were on the list, instead of the original artists' songs. I understand why they would include them, but some of the songs I had honestly never heard of until they were covers. I have no history with the original versions, therefore the Metallica covers are the originals for me.
I'm always judging subsequent versions of any media by my first experience with them. That's the reason I'm apprehensive to ever see Sweeney Todd in its native form as a play, since Tim Burton's recent film has so far been the only exposure I've had to the story.

Sea of Dreams

I am getting pretty excited about Bioshock 2, as you may have read somewhere.
I spent a few of my free minutes before work here perusing the teaser site, Something in the sea. I really like what they seem to be doing with it, for some reason the tension of all the notes about abducted children and bizarre sightings really gets in my head. I'm imagining this fast armored thing coming out of the sea to steal little girls and spirit them away to the underwater city of Rapture.
According to released information about the upcoming sequel, you'll take on the role of a Big Daddy, the primary antagonists of the first game, with the goal of rescuing those adorably creepy Little Sisters from the new baddie, the Big Sister.
I was initially concerned since the original Bioshock team (2K Boston, home of Ken Levine and now Shawn Elliot) aren't involved in development, the duties rather falling on the newly created 2K Marin team. I did read that some of the original team members that worked on the first game are heavily involved in the Marin studio, which is reassuring.
The first gameplay footage was shown, which introduced both the Big Sister, and the player character's new look (I get a drill arm, sweet!), along with some cool new underwater concepts. At one point in the video, the agile Big Sister floods the entire room you're fighting in, but because of your diving-suit, you appear to be capable of surviving, with no visible oxygen gauge counting down. I really hope they don't put a limit to how long you can stay underwater, as it doesn't seem like developers can pull it off without using your potential drowning as a source of tension.
The water effects looked excellent, just like the first game, with the new underwater sequence full of detritus and filth after the room is filled with sea water. There have been some negative comments about the game being a return to Rapture, but I feel any other location would have to be a new game entirely, instead of a numbered sequel. Maybe something else with the -shock suffix, (Bioshock being the spiritual successor to the System Shock franchise). But until Volcanoshock or Mechashock come out, we're going to have to live with this new iteration of a known location.
I just better be able to stab a whale with my drill arm.

I have to say

I need some writing advice:
I want a phrase to start a blog post that isn't "I have to say". I almost started this one with it, and I'm starting to dread the sight. For some reason, (there's another standard sentence starter), every time I want to begin talking about my opinion on anything, good or bad, I tend to start with "I have to say" or a variation thereof. I suppose I could get right into my feelings about the situation, but it seems abrupt.
Compare these two intros:

1) I'm getting pretty excited about Bioshock 2.
2) I have to say, I'm getting pretty excited about Bioshock 2.

The first is direct, and an efficient way of getting the information across, but the second sounds more like normal conversational speech to me. Should writing sound like that? I have absolutely no formal writing knowledge past High-school level, so I have no idea if how I write is acceptable for the format (blog posts) or not. I suppose if you take the stance that a blog is more of a personal diary, then you can write as you please. But it's also posted out on the internet for anyone to see, and that makes me self-concious about the quality. I suppose I could take a writing class if I wanted to get serious about it

Easter penance

Well that didn't go well. Combined with our Anniversary on Saturday, and Easter with the family on Sunday, I think I may have eaten too much. Plus we didn't get to the gym like we were supposed to on Saturday night, so now we're a day behind. Oh well, nothing to do but get back on the wagon.
Finally found some time to cut my hair, so I'm back to the shorn look. I'm pretty please about that. It's funny coming from a former long-hair, now I can't stand if it gets long enough to look messy. Jenny teases me about it, but I would seriously cut it at least once a month. Apparently I'm getting better at using the clippers myself, so maybe I can just shave it up whenever I want. Either way, this is way more comfortable than a ponytail down my back. Looking back at older pictures of me, I can't believe how much I don't like the long hair. It just looked so messy, even my wedding pictures look terrible, although that's more a result of the gut, I was pretty big back then.
So apparently Betty, our cat, isn't down with the fancy frou-frou food. For Easter we bought her some deluxe gunk from PetSmart, I believe it was Tilapia and Shrimp Gumbo, and mixed it with her normal dry food. She did end up getting some of the actual fish, but all of her normal dry was gone. I just can't imagine a cat not liking fish and shrimp, but maybe I'm expecting her to conform to a stereotype. I guess my kids better like hot dogs and macaroni, or I'm gonna beat 'em.
Only kidding... I'm going to beat them regardless.

Your friend the sign painter.

Well I finished World of Goo tonight, I have to say as far as puzzlers go, it was a good one. I only had to look up one solution, and I regretted that once I saw what I needed to do. Still, it was an enjoyable experience. Some great work there, from the physics to the graphics, everything had a ton of character and thought put into it.
Now I'm down to World in Conflict, which is the first RTS game I've played for more than a few missions, (I did go through the entire Terran campaign in the first Starcraft, but still).
After that, there's The Lost and Damned, the expansion DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4. I'm enjoying the story and characters in that as well, but some of the mission restarts can be a bit frustrating. I tried a particular mission several times tonight and could not get through it. Finally, as I realized my frustration level was overwhelming my enjoyment level, I gave it up for tonight. It's getting pretty late already, and I want to get up early tomorrow. Happy Anniversary to us, it's been 5 years to the day :)

False advertising

Not one dish at Panda Hut was actual Panda meat, and my disappointment is balanced only by my fullness. Still, a good time was had by all, dirty dining report notwithstanding.

Here is the best part of the above linked report:

"The restaurant was also using a Black & Decker drill as a mixer."

I mean, that is absolutely bad-ass. If you're going to have health-code violation, might as well go Tool Time style. I personally prefer my food mixed at 3000rpm.

I have trouble with those reports, for a couple of reasons: One, I rarely see a follow up piece showing how a restaurant is or isn't dealing with the problems they've been called out on. Sure, you can go and look it up if you want to, but why not give an exonerated establishment the same air-time as the scary initial visit? Two, I just feel like those stories are strictly done to shock viewers and get ratings. But that seems to be a larger problem with media these days anyway.
Must be that damn "Liberal Media" that I've been hearing about.. < /sarcasm >

I don't want to miss a thing: part 2

So on with more podcast discussion. If you take one week's set of shows, (all the ones I subscribe to are weekly), you can be reasonably assured that most of them will cover similar topics, (new releases, what's in the news, etc.) So why do I need to listen to the same information multiple times? For me, at least, it's all about the personalities doing the discussion, I find the more opinions I get about a particular topic, the easier it is for me to make up my own mind about it.
My history with a podcast also plays a role, if I've watched the cast mature and change over the course of its life, I'm more likely to keep listening to see where they end up. It's almost like episodic television, you want to see where these characters are going next. To be honest, the title of these posts have been one real answer, I really am afraid to miss something good, like 1up Yours' (now Listen UP) interview with Dennis Dyack. Plus let's face it, I don't have a lot of people I can talk gaming with, so I think I tend to follow these journalists because they're talking about things I want to be talking about.
Sometimes I'm agreeing with them and nodding my head, sometimes I'm shaking it and wondering how someone can be so stupid. Either way, it makes for an interesting ride into work.
So what can be done? For now I'm content to keep plugging through February's shows, and hopefully catch up sometime in 2033 or so. There just aren't enough times during the day that I have the ability or concentration to listen to a podcast, short of the drives to and from work. Lately I've taken to listening while playing World of Goo, but I'm about done with that game. Listening while working out at the gym is always an option, but I've noticed that I tend to get a better workout if I'm cranking some upbeat music, so I've given up on that as well.
Oh well, slogging on through the deluge of entertainment, pity me.

I don't want to miss a thing: Part 1

To those with a bad Aerosmith song in their head now, I apologize.
But you see, I can't seem to catch up on my podcasts, I'm still listening to February's shows. I could really stand to cut a couple out, but I'm having a hard time deciding who should go.
Take a look to the lower right so see the list of podcasts currently taking up space on my iPod:

Here are some thoughts on each of them:
The last couple episodes of The Geekbox started going too far off-topic, covering Lost spoilers and such, so I stopped a few minutes in, and I only listen to Retronauts if I'm familiar with the game series they're covering.

The What They Play podcast doesn't necessarily apply to me, being more parent oriented, but I enjoy John Davison's commentary, and the show is relatively short. The guys at Giant Bomb usually put on a good two hours of entertainment, (complete with drink taste-testing), that I enjoy, so that's safe from deletion. Gamers With Jobs was a recent addition, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the conversations they have over, again, about two hours.

The list of long podcasts (and long list of podcasts) goes on with the Gamespot podcast, which I considered dumping a while back, being that most of the personalities associated with it had moved on to form the aforementioned Giant Bomb.com. But lately I've been enjoying some of the interviews they've run, from Judges pushing through gaming legislation, to game developers.

Rebel FM is staffed by more former 1up employees, and so far they've been worth listening to, although I've been skipping their Game Club 'casts, since they have been playing through games I haven't played, and aren't interested in playing.

A Life Well Wasted is Robert Ashley's new vehicle, called by some the gaming version of NPR's "This American Life", and so far that's been interesting. The newest addition to the time-sink is Out of the Game, which I am ashamed to say I haven't even listened to yet, even though it reunites two of my favorite ex-journalists, Shawn Elliot and Jeff Green.

I think that will wrap up Part 1 of this 2 part post.
In part 2 I'll try to explain why I have such a hard time not listening to some or all of these entertaining shows.

Abandoned blog graveyard

Well, Thursday morning and I've got about 15 minutes to write. I was thinking yesterday, I wonder how many people start a blog with the intention of writing every day, or even once a week. Out of those, how many actually keep it going for very long, those that don't write professionally. There are probably huge amounts of personal scribblings just sitting, untouched for months or even years. I can't say for sure where the one you're reading right now will be. Maybe my interest will wane and I'll move on to different things. Lord knows I have the history, ask me the last time I rendered something with Bryce.
So every morning for the last couple months, the only thing I have for breakfast is a Slim-fast shake or meal bar. I have to say, of all the changes in lifestyle related to my diet, this one has been one of the easiest. Eating healthy for lunch and dinner are much harder for me. I suppose it helps that I actually don't mind the taste of the Slim-fast, but still, it's a far cry from a breakfast scrambler burrito from Qdoba.

I'm totally changing my name to Khristophoros

The meaning of “Christopher” from Ancestry.com: English: from Greek Khristophoros, a name composed of the elements Khristos Christ + pherein to bear. This was popular among early Christians, conscious of the fact that they were metaphorically bearing Christ in their hearts. A later, over-literal interpretation of the name gave rise to the legend of a saint who actually bore the Christ-child over a stream; he is regarded as the patron of travellers. Cognates: Irish Gaelic: Críostóir. Scottish: Kester; See also Crìsdean. French: Christophe. Italian: Cristoforo. Spanish: Cristóbal. Catalan: Cristòfol. Portuguese: Cristovão. German: Christoph. Scandinavian: Kristoffer. Polish: Krzysztof. Czech: Kryštof Finnish: Risto.

Strange that I have little to no religious beliefs, and both my first and middle names are religious in nature.

Your knee a-splode

This week’s new craving: A quarter-pounder with cheese and fries from McDonald’s. I’m not sure why that came up all of a sudden, I suppose the menu picture in the drive-thru on Monday contributed. I’d really like to not fall off the wagon on the weekends, but at least for now I think I need the “reward”, (so placed in quotes because it is both reward and punishment, one psychological, one physical). That being said, I am excited to try Panda Hut, as is the plan for Friday lunch.
Last night was cardio, and I managed 1.25 miles on the elliptical trainer, with 225 calories burned. Tonight it will be weights again, and Jenny tells me that we’ll have done a solid 5 days in a row, having started on Saturday. Then Thursday and Friday off, then back to the 5 days of alternating weight-training and cardio. I’m learning that being as overweight as I am, there are certain exercises I cannot do. I hope to add the Dead-lift and Squat back in once I lose more weight, but for now I have to substitute some easier, machine exercises that are less likely to cause my knees to explode like claymores.
I’m not nearly as uncomfortable at the gym these days, although I think it’s more through familiarity than growing self-esteem. I’m starting to feel that familiarity with a place that I visit almost 5 times a week. The sights, sounds, and smells of Anytime Fitness are starting to become familiar and comfortable, which I hope is a good sign of an on-going relationship with the place, and exercise in general. One negative about moving would be having to find another gym and go through it all over again. I’ll miss AF-West Allis’ regular patrons, from the guy Jenny and I refer to as Lurch, because he looks like the huge trolley-boy from Hot Fuzz, (he totally gave me the “what’s up” head-raise.) To the hot blonde that Jenny teases me about because I refused to hop on the elliptical right next to her.

Achievement unlocked: Blog named

This blog is so titled because I’m here at work early, as I am every day, simply because I get better parking than I would arriving at my start time of 8AM. It seems kind of ridiculous, but I’ve gotten in the habit, and justify it to myself with the decreased traffic congestion that appears if I leave at 7. This will probably change once we get a house and move, but for now I think I’ll just keep on doing it. Long story short, I'm going to try and use the time to write something.