Ring in the new year, Wii-less.

Sigh.

Well, I still have no new Nintendo. I had a great chance at getting one recently, I was in gamestop pre-ordering two copies of the Burning Crusade, the new expansion to WoW, and the sales guy told me they should be getting Wiis in on the UPS shipment that afternoon. Wouldn't let me preorder or anything of the like, apparently after they're released no more preordering. So I waited, and waited. And waited. For the (at this point) exceedingly late UPS truck. By the time the truck got there, there were 4 people waiting around for a chance at the Wii.

Alas, it was not to be. The truck arrived, and that day, there were no Wii's to be had. Looks like I won't be playing until 2007.

Soon my Wii.. Soon....

Nintendo Wii

So as a 360 owner, I've been ignoring the Wii since launch. I didn't want to buy it, I know it has the new Zelda, but I was halfway hoping it would die on impact and keep me from buying multiple consoles this generation. Obviously from the post a few days ago, I didn't want to buy another Gamecube that had a few great games over the course of several years. Then of course, Tomasland had me over to play it, and now I have to have one. I'm amazed at how intuitive the control is. It makes every game feel like the huge motion sensitive games at the arcade. It's so much more intuitive to just swing your controller like a golf club, instead of hitting a button as you start to swing, hit a button as you stop to swing.

Of course, the hardest game to win at this point is finding one. Hopefully in a few days I'll be posting my impressions of the new Zelda.

Backwoods Cephalopods

So... I've watched Squidbillies since the show started. I never really liked it, but it was sandwiched between shows I watched, and because it's 15 min it was not too obtrusive.

Here's what scares me. After all this time, I'm actually starting to "get" the show. I can't figure out whether the show has gotten better, or I've just become so accustomed to the animation and characters that they've become more entertaining. Initially, I really felt like it was something that would run for a few episodes and then die quietly in the dead of night, never to be heard from again.

At this point though, I think they're building a loyal fanbase. It might be around for awhile.

Anyone else watching this insanity??

Requiem for a Gamecube

Rest in Peace my console. I hardly knew ye.

Except for all the dusting of you I had to do when I wasn't playing a console that had games released for it.

In memoriam....

Eternal Darkness
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Bros Melee
Zelda : The Windwaker (Along with what is still my favorite preorder bonus ever)
Mario Kart Double Dash
Metroid Prime
Animal Crossing
Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles
F-Zero GX (DAMN YOU F-ZERO GX!)
Resident Evil 4 (Sure it eventually came to PS2, but GC had it exclusively for almost a year! I'm counting it, it was amazing on GC).

Oh my old friend, we had some good times. You had the first wireless controllers I ever truly loved, before that they were all 3rd party and never as good as the wired versions.

You forced me to buy the component cables DIRECT from Nintendo, the only console that has ever done such a thing, and I spent my 50 dollars and still forgave you, as I hit yes on the "Load progressive scan?" screen with a smile.

You made grown men play animal crossing with their children, girlfriends, or wives. We played it for them, but we turned it on when they weren't around to see if we had mail. And maybe go fishing.

Your cute little discs sat side by side with my conventional sized 4.7 GB discs, staring them in the face as if you were just as big as they were.

You gave us the hope of a sequel to the Wind Waker, a great game that was almost destroyed by a 5 hour sailing session at the end, leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

We hoped and prayed to have a triumphant sendoff before your final requiem. One that never came.

Farewell my Console. Perhaps Wii will meet again.

WoWmageddon!

Well, the patch day came and went.  The servers were down for about an extra 8 hours, not surprising considering the amount of stuff changed in the patch.

So right now, I'm having kind of a Eureka mini-marathon with all the repeat episodes I saved on my tivo (the first run of the season is over).  I have to say, this show definately endeared itself to me, while it's not the most intelligent or well written show, it is definitely enjoyable, and generally nice and happy ending.  

Has anyone who reads my insane ramblings been watching Heroes?? I really felt like while this season did spend 80% of it's time building up character backgrounds (a necessary evil when you're trying to flesh out SO man characters), it really gained momentum in the last few episodes, and I can't wait to see the rest of the season after the new year.

My grandparent's are celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary this week. We're going out for dinner with the whole family tonight (tex-mex) and doing the celebration thing.  59 years!  Good lord.  I can't even conceive of it.  That's twice my lifespan at this point, and they've been married that long, and still seem to be happy. Some days I don't feel like I'm going to be happy for the next 20 minutes.

So on the Eureka I'm watching, an android built by a notoriously unfeeling C.E.O. of a major corporation just died (or ceased functioning).  The C.E.O. cried for him.  It's a nice show.

Better now!

Well, I'm feeling better.  Which is awesome. First off:

There, that should be in everyone's head for a few days.  Such a catchy tune.

Moving on, today is WoWmageddon.  They're rolling out a 500MB patch to every single client.  Can you imagine?? 500MB on dial-up?? That's insanity!!

More to come later as the fallout hits.

Sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick

Being sick sucks.  Sitting around with your whole body all achy, fighting off stupid germs that want to kill you, and wishing you were well even though it means being at work instead, just blows.

 

At least i'm getting to finally test out my HD-DVD drive.  It looks awesome.  I'm pretty sure I have the flu, that's what's been going around the office.  Oh well.   At least I made it through the holidays before I got knocked out.

Thanks for the Giving!

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone.   Personally, I'm still in shock from how much food we consumed.  My family went to a nice hotel that was having a thanksgiving feast, it was excellent.   Everything you could want and a whole turkey on top of it! ;)  As well, once we were done eating, everyone just gets up, and goes home, and no one is stuck cleaning for another several hours.

The only downside I could come up with, was that it's much farther from the hotel back to the couch, than it is from the kitchen to the couch.  So that's unfortunate. (They didn't have couches set up that you could pass out on and watch football.)

I did have my first banana's foster made right in front of me though, which was excellent.  It's a relatively simple dessert, and I think the wife and I will be making them at home soon.   Yummy flambe!

 

Beyond that, I've been trying to get online to play some Halo 2 with the bro (he pulled me out of gears of war), but turns out now you have to freaking download the add-on maps, since they're in standard rotation.  So I'm about 20 min into downloading all this crap, once that's done it'll be game time. 

He really needs to get a 360, I want to play some Gears!! :)

Sooo pretty.

Ok, so I wasn't wrong preordering Gears of War.  It's so amazingly pretty.  I've played it for several hours, and every time I start the next level it's even better. 

 

However, the online multiplayer is tough.  I've done O.K., but there are a lot of people who are very good already (and the game's only been out for two days.)  Apparently either this game is amazingly well balanced, or I just can't figure out the trick. :)

I can't wait until someone I know picks it up for some online co-op.

Best Game Trailer Ever

So I just downloaded this off Xbox Live, and I had to come find a copy to share.  What an awesome choice of music.

P.S. they were very specific to say that this was all made IN-ENGINE, it is NOT CG.

Gears of War Cinema trailer

Whew!!

Almost forgot a big one!!  I get to buy TWO copies of this sucker! 

25 man raid limit will definately be different.  We've been raiding with a group called the Stormseekers lately.  Started out slow, went a little crazy and ended up raiding 5 nights a week.  It was TOO much.  Ended up just being exhausted all the time.  

So now we're just gonna be nice and relaxed, raid a couple days, take care of the rest of life in general, and all that good stuff.  Till the expansion comes out.  Then i'm sure it will be insane race to 70 time again.  

Tis the life. ;) 

Good lord!

 

Why is it every single year they do this to us?? All summer there's an extreme drought of games, and then all of a sudden it's time to be broke!

Here's what's hitting in the next 2 months that I will be picking up.

 

 - October 16th

 - October 17th - November 7th

 

- November 7th

 

 

- November 20th  - This one is just a possibly, it originally looked like it was going to be AMAZING, but now i'm going to wait for reviews.

 

 

 - November 20th.  What?  The first one was fun!  No, really!  And there's a casino!  Everyone loves casinos!  Also, A jetski game like wave race!  Oh, and I hear they're using the FULL processing power of the xbox 360...mmmmm... processing..

 

And not to mention, the MASSIVE bomb -

 - 360 HD-DVD player - November 17th

 

 - THE WII!! NOV 19th!!

 

 

 - New ZELDA!! NOV 19TH!!

 

The credit card companies are going to love me this year.  All this, and I won't have bought a single present for anyone else. 

Being a grown-up is awesome sometimes.

Dead Rising

So lately, besides World of Warcraft, my time has been completely sucked away by the game Dead Rising.  I finished the normal storyline weeks ago, but I'm completely infatuated with finishing the achievements.   I've literally sat and watched my character stand around to unlock outdoorsman "spend 24 hours outdoors".   It's insane.  I wonder if Microsoft knew what they were doing when they actually came up with achievements.   That they would be a driving force behind getting the most gameplay out of a game.

 

I picked up Lego Star Wars II this week.  I've only played through the first level, but I picked it up on the 360.   Which was 10 dollars more.  And why did I get it for that, instead of one of the other cheaper systems??  Because the wireless controllers rock, and my 360 is already hooked up to the system all the time.  And why is that a copout?? Because, I got it for the achievements!! ;)   It's like when I first started playing WoW.  I would think about playing other games, and realize "but that would be wasting time that I could better spend in WoW leveling.  It's another level to the Carrot on a Stick.  How brilliant.

A new day has dawned!

 Well, a new day of weblogging has dawned.  I have downloaded the Windows Live Writer beta.   I entered my weblog information, it downloaded the supporting files, and now i'm updating from an application.  I continously find excuses to not login to the website and update my blog, hopefully updating directly from this application will force me to do more updating.

Information Station!

So, my last post was on Apr 4th, and this post is July 4th. That wasn't planned, I promise.

I actually have true information for you! We have reached a major milestone in our production of this album. We now have 2 songs complete. While myspace dilutes the quality, the final versions are now online at Anything Times Zero's Myspace Page.

In other news, we've just completed a major project at work, that was a huge pain in the ass. So this is just about one of the best vacations ever. I've played a ton of World of Warcraft, gone swimming for the first time in years, and watched about a whole season of Buffy. I was never interested in Buffy when it was on the air, but after watching Firefly (The new and prematurely cancelled Joss Whedon series), the writing was so amazing my SO and I decided we needed to go back and watch the rest of Whedon's work. If you haven't seen firefly, go buy it now. It's so amazing.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Solidifying my place in Geek History

So here’s my step towards solidifying my place in the palace of Geekdom. I have been interested in this project for awhile, and finally had the time today to take it on. Here’s the PDF I created, that is a chronological timeline of all the produced Star Trek Episodes and films. We’ve been watching Star Trek before bed lately, and it’s been so fun I think I’m going to take this on next. It'll take years, but seriously, what else have I been doing? :)

The Star Trek Complete Film and Series Chronology

Punk Band Punk Band La La La La

I should rename this blog - "The ongoing saga of two punks to get their album completed". Or maybe "How I learned to frustrate myself on hundreds of dollars of equipment a day".

My personal favorite has to be the VH1 special title - Anything Times Zero - behind the scenes, before the tragedy!

Of course, I don't know of any tragedy coming. It does make for a dramatic title though, doesn't it?? Right now, we are mired in the deepest depths of vocal hell. For those of you out there that are experienced recording vocalists, I envy you. This is definately one of the most difficult things I've participated in. Being a perfectionist, it's extremely difficult for me to accept my own personal failings, and be willing to put up with them. (I suck as a singer. However, I sing my fucking heart out. I think that should count. Let's put a sort of sliding scale into place, as long as I'm on there somewhere.)

Our album is musically coming to completion. We've laid down all the drumwork, the guitar work, and 90% of the basswork, and now it's vocals time!! So we started doing vocals. Over and over and over and over and over until we got drunk enough or tired enough to call them a success. I then proceeded to mix and mix and reverb and tweak and edit and compress and change and push and pull and tweak again and chorus.... and be unhappy. I talked to the other half of my band brain, who was also unhappy with the results. (I have to say, I've never worked with anyone musically I've agreed with more on such a wide variety of problems.... it's the only thing that's kept us going, that we do have a singular vision.)

So I, in my bigheaded I'm a super-mixing-production tech now way (Hey, I've been doing it almost a month, that makes me a pro right?), spent a couple weeks researching vocal styles. Doing critical listening to bands we like, don't like, don't listen to, and love, to find out what makes a vocal track different, what makes it stand out, and what makes it fail. By the time I showed up for the first "experimental" vocal session I had what I thought were some good ideas on where we should go. I termed it experimental because it was really going to be a controlled search for our "sound". We are both experienced and probably better than decent musicians. So of course, we spent all our energy making the music rock, making it sound good and go together well. Vocals were our last thought, when they should've been our first, because of course, as the most inexperienced piece they needed the most time investment.

So we experimented. We tried a variety of vocal styles, from Blink-182 i'm a pissed off 16 yr old lyrics, to Henry Rollins I'm the guy who fucks your mother style. RRRARRRGH. Spent a week doing that. Listened, listened, listened, and found out that's not us. It doesn't fit our style, it doesn't sound smooth, and the Henry rollins thing is a bitch to carry for 45 minutes. Vocal chord ouch.

We come to this weeks recording session. (I know, I know... FINALLY!) Chances are, if you're still reading this, you are so bored off your ass it's sad, or you're sitting at work looking for things to do that aren't work. Good show! Back on topic, this week's recording. We looked at what we'd done, what we wanted to do, and decided. We're going to be us. We're going to sing like we sing, we're going to sound like we sound (for better or worse, probably better for C and worse for me... ;P AND, we're going to be punks like we know how to be.

After all the changes, and all the back and forth, and all the false starts, I'm confident in where we're going. I think that this album will really get done, I think our second album will get done, and I think it's going to sound unique and it's going to sound like us. Hell Yeah.

I never missed a shot
The women think I'm hot
And you know that I've had my fair share

But I've still got the touch
Tu mere knows as much
I am the man, I am Jean Pierre!

Being A Producer

Ok, so we're coming down to the point where we're actually having to start putting all the mess we've created together. As a whole, we've been working on this album on and off for over a year now, and it's time to start mixing and mastering.

So for the last week and a half, I've done NOTHING but read about mixing and mastering. It's intense, amazing, and brain numbing stuff. I've remixed our first track about a thousand times, and every time I get closer, and then decide I don't like it and start over. Damn you perfectionism!!

In other words, I'm frustrated. I'm learning such a huge amount, I'll spend all day reading and absorbing information, get home and start work, and by the end of the night I'll be banging my head on the desk because I just can't get that last 3% I want.

I suppose that's part of creation, letting go. If I had my way, everything I ever worked on would just be shoved to the back of a closet, and labeled with a huge marker "NOT GOOD ENOUGH". Thankfully, while my counterpart on this album is the same way, together we refuse to let either of us succeed in doing that.

So it will be released, eventually. Vocals and production continue.

Tomorrow's Monday, unfortunately, but at least we're forging on.

Punk rock!

This is one of our picks after a recording session:

Now that's punk rock!!!

Also, while cleaning the house, this is your friend:

Now THAT'S cleaning!

I look forward to killing you soon.

Ok, so I keep watching these, and the next one was even funnier.



Wanted to share. ;)

I look forward to killing you soon.

So if you haven't seen this... this guy cracks me up.



You can see the rest at Ask a Ninja!

Zelda

Yes.. The Legend of Zelda Whitest of the White boy raps Pwns J00.
Dear God help us all.

Beware!! The Robo-planes are coming to rule us!


Lockheed Martin is now testing Cormorant, a stealthy autonomous spy jet that starts and ends its mission 150 feet under water. Launched from Ohio-class submarines, the four-ton aircraft is designed with folding wings that allow it to fit inside a Trident missile tube, which is about 48 feet long but just 7 feet wide. The stealthy drone quietly floats to the surface and goes about its business of putting the hurt on those who hate America, and then when all the killing is done, slips back under the waves to be retrieved by a sneaky robotic underwater vehicle. Testing should be done by September, when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will decide if it will commission a flying prototype. So it’s not real yet, but even so, this has to be one of the coolest-looking airplane drawings ever.

Supermodels

So I ordered the MFX supermodels for my GNX4 yesterday. Apparently, they are amazing. What the GNX4 is designed to do is allow you to simulate any amplifier and amp cabinet. (*Woosh*). Ok, I know I'm talking over the head of the 98% of you out there that are not guitarists and have never played with this thing, but it's awesome. The only problem is, there's a HUGE time investment based in creating your patches, mainly due to the fact that the amplifiers that are included with the unit are not very good. They are extremely basic, and mostly a shallow impression of a real amp, because the guys designing it had time to do that.

Enter Mike, the guy who made these supermodels.. he's an acoustic modeller who's been doing it for 25 years, and he had the equipment available to acoustically model all these amplifiers.

So I'm kind of excited. I'll let you know how they sound when I get them, but I spent a good portion of yesterday reading and they're getting only raves from the prosound community.

In addition, I purchased this : The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, 2006 (Paperback)

We're planning to go in the fall, this book apparently has some good info and pulls no punches.

For those who were watching (I got no guesses)... the movie was John Woo's Paycheck. Cheesy I know, but fun on the day off.

Calendar Today

So this was on my calendar today. Pretty funny.

The failure of the movie game!

Ok, so apparently in all my template changes, at some point blogger decided to revert to the locked down "only registered blogger users can comment."

Obviously, this was a detriment to the movie game, since 98% of people don't HAVE a blogger account, or WANT to get one. (Most of us have enough accounts already, right?)

Regardless, I have fixed the nazi setting, now it's 75% less nazi. I did leave the "type the stupid jumble of letters" setting on, to prevent all the spambot posts, I'm assuming most of you didn't want a bigger penis, or nasty love from a transexual.

I'm not here to judge.

The movie game

Ok, so since i'm home today and it's a holiday, I figured I would make it a game.

Can anyone figure out what movie this is??

This is a hard one (didn't want the first one to be too easy).. if no one gets it I'll post an easier pic later.







Ok, here's the 2nd easier pic, both of the big names right there.

Mr. Adams

Since I'm on a Douglas Adams rant tonight, here's another great quote :

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

You'll never watch them the same way again..

This was pretty hilarious, truly tells you how horribly things can be taken out of context. ;)

Brokeback to the Future

It must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

So I was curious about the origin of President's day, when it was changed from Washington's/Lincoln's seperate days, so I did some searching. Here you go:
History of the Holiday - The original version of the holiday was in commemoration of George Washington's birthday in 1796 (the last full year of his presidency). Washington, according to the calendar that has been used since at least the mid-18th century, was born on February 22, 1732. According to the old style calendar in use back then, however, he was born on February 11. At least in 1796, many Americans celebrated his birthday on the 22nd while others marked the occasion on the 11th instead. By the early 19th century, Washington's Birthday had taken firm root in the American experience as a bona fide national holiday. Its traditions included Birthnight Balls in various regions, speeches and receptions given by prominent public figures, and a lot of revelry in taverns throughout the land. Then along came Abraham Lincoln, another revered president and fellow February baby (born on the 12th of the month). The first formal observance of his birthday took place in 1865, the year after his assassination, when both houses of Congress gathered for a memorial address. While Lincoln's Birthday did not become a federal holiday like George Washington's, it did become a legal holiday in several states. In 1968, legislation (HR 15951) was enacted that affected several federal holidays. One of these was Washington's Birthday, the observation of which was shifted to the third Monday in February each year whether or not it fell on the 22nd. This act, which took effect in 1971, was designed to simplify the yearly calendar of holidays and give federal employees some standard three-day weekends in the process. Apparently, while the holiday in February is still officially known as Washington's Birthday (at least according to the Office of Personnel Management), it has become popularly (and, perhaps in some cases at the state level, legally) known as "President's Day." This has made the third Monday in February a day for honoring both Washington and Lincoln, as well as all the other men who have served as president.

So there you go. Sort of interesting.

I'm also finally brought up the proposition of getting myself a music studio. It doesn't look like it's going to happen just yet, but at least Stace knows it's high on the priority list. Unfortunately, we just don't have enough rooms in our house now to squeeze one in. However, I do have an excellent entertainment room right now though, so I can't complain too much. I will be happy when I get a music studio with full drum kit setup for recording though.

Currently, I'm watching Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (hence the title of this post). I've read the series of books too many times to start thinking about counting (but I don't think i'm up to 42 yet.) Initially, I wasn't extremely happy with the movie, however I did like it enough to buy it on DVD when it was released. After seeing it a couple times, I have grown to enjoy it more. There was so much material for them to cover, so many amazing parts of the book that had to be left out, which I'm sure means that when I walked into the film I had extremely unrealistc expectations. At this point, I think that it's well done, that Zooey Deschanel is extremely cute, and that they make a couple more of them (which is probably unlikely). It is too bad that Douglas Adams didn't survive to see it on the big screen, I know he had been working on a film version for a LONG time. You did it my friend. /Salute

Wow, that's amazing!

So I don't have much to say, full post later.

Look at how heavenly we are, the light follows us!

ATZ recording - God of War

So we had a recording session tonight.. and we finished up a few tracks. I actually think they turned out really well, I did an early mixdown and they're sounding excellent. I think if we spend enough time or get someone who really knows their stuff to mix them, they'll sound just as good as anything I've heard lately.

In other news, God of War freaking rocks. I played through it awhile back (with the storyline being ruined by my brother... not intentionally, just one of those accidents that suck). He called me, asked what I was doing, and said "Oh God of War?? Have you gotten to the part where such-and-such happens??" "Um.... NO!!!" "Oh, well it's not that big a deal, it's like the middle of the game".

Come to find out, it's the BIG REVEAL AT THE END OF THE GAME THEY SPEND THE WHOLE TIME BUILDING UP TO. Don't worry, I'm not bitter. ;)

Regardless, if you own a Playstation 2, and like games, you must check this one out. It's one of the most cinematic, artful, and well controlled games i've ever played, (and I've played a few).

Real Life Lara Croft

So Eidos has chosen the new spokeswoman to play Lara Croft. Here's her pic:

For comparison purposes, here's the in-game model.


She's a relative unknown, but not bad looking at all.

Valentines Day!

Ok, so i've discovered one thing that I definately need... more pictures.








Everyone loves pictures!!
Regardless, I have begun composing drum tracks for our existing songs with my GNX 4.

I think the midi drums sound pretty good, however, the application for managing them is not so good. It's ok, but it won't seem to keep my settings and forces me to make too many changes when I cut in and out of the track I'm working on. Not very efficient.

We now have a myspace site at www.myspace.com/anythingtimeszero. Add us as your friend, and we'll do the same! We have 2 older tracks up there, they've been redone several times since then, but we felt they kind of give some indication of where we're going with this project.

Valentines day!!!

So for valentines day, I decided to go a bit unconventional. Stace and I had already decided that we were not going to go out or do anything big, but of course I had to do SOMETHING (ignoring valentines day is always the kiss of death!). So when I got home from work, I cleaned the living crap out of the kitchen, and then made some banana pudding, put some vanilla wafers around the sides, and spent 20 min cutting vanilla wafers into the shape of a heart. (I figured I could just throw some on there in the shape of a heart, but they were too big.. so then I tried breaking them, but they pretty much just shatter. So finally, I had to get the sharpest knife we own, and slice them down the center. I think it came out pretty good, she could tell it was a heart. )

I really wanted to get a picture of it.. but of course the batteries in the camera were dead, and we ate half of it that night. It sure was tasty too, those banana slices I put on the top spruced it up.

So here's a quick approximation I did :



I've seen it gone over about a hundred times this year on various blogs and news sites, but I'm personally pretty tired of Valentines Day. Everyone wants to run out and buy buy buy things and not really put any effort into what they're doing.. so it really ends up being an empty gesture. "Hey, corporate America said I should give you flowers and chocolate so you don't hate me, here ya go! 100 bucks more in wal-m@rt's pockets!"

Update frequently, Who ME???

Alrighty, so now that I've been linked from another blog, and right now I'm listed as the most frequent updater, I guess I'd better get off my ass.

Over this weekend, I watched The Chumscrubber.

I rented this, as I rent most movies, which is completely blind. I believe I had seen some of the television previews, but they provided very little information. I personally believe that almost ALL movie promotion tools these days show too much information. Previews are running around 4 minutes now, and due to the fact that movies can be made with so little true story content, they're showing almost every twist except the last 2 minutes (generally; I have even seen previews that gave away the ending, if you were watching!).

So as I sat there, awake, at 2AM Monday morning (woke up at 1, wide awake, couldn't even begin to go back to sleep) I watched it. I was first amazed by how many big names were in it. I knew it was a rather indie type film, but they managed to get Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lauren Holly, and several others. The lead character was played by Jamie Bell (the boy who was Billy Elliot - another amazing movie, for those who haven't seen it).

Obviously, since I am against it, I'm not going to give away any information about this film, but if you enjoy more serious films (it definately has some humor, but I think most people will feel it's rather dark overall) I would rent it. Jamie Bell is going to stay around I think, he's an amazing actor.

I also sat down with my wife and watched The Corpse Bride.

Now personally, I'm a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I love the tale, I love the amazing style, and I love the Music (to the point of having a copy of the soundtrack). I think it's one of the most original and interesting works of animation in awhile.

Saying all this, I think it becomes rather obvious that I had high hopes for The Corpse Bride. I wanted more, I wanted the same level of emotional involvment, and I wanted the characters to really suck me in. (I mean, they're played by Johnny Depp and Helena-Bonham Carter f0r God's sake). In case you haven't read into it at this point, I was disappointed.

This movie is OOZING style . It's art direction is amazing, the puppetry is astounding, and it's a technical masterpiece. The colors and artful lack of color makes it look incredible.

It's just too bad it's not a very good movie. It doesn't have any flow, it feels incredibly disjointed, and you really just don't ever like the characters. Except for the Jazzy "Land of the Dead" number, the songs are completely forgettable, and the characters are simply cardboard cutouts.

If you enjoy the art style, and just the Tim Burton quirkyness (which he seems to be mandatorily increasing per project) then this is not a bad Sunday afternoon movie. It's easy to watch and very pretty to look at. However, it will not be a classic, other than an animation study class piece.

Superbowl This, Superbowl That

Ok, so I was having problems with my browser, it was displaying the text in white, which made it VERY difficult to proofread a post. :) However, it appears I was successful in posting the title, very confusing.

Regardless, now there shall be a post. Personally, I'm not infatuated with any individual sport, I have seen most of them played, and will watch some occasionally (generally to show off my HDTV to people that are over, since they spend the most money broadcasting sports they generally look great in HD).

So we went to a friend's superbowl party, mainly because it was a good excuse to see friends we hadn't seen in quite awhile and drink some beer. Overall, a pretty good time. Also, they steamed some crab legs, which were quite tasty.

I have discovered a graphic which correctly sums up my current feelings.



Enough said.

Installed

So I got my theater light installed. It's excellent. Makes watching a movie or tv so much nicer, and my eyes don't get tired near as easily.

As for everything else, it's ok. I got my hair done yesterday, after getting out of the dentist. I got it all super blonde highlighted, which at least makes it interesting. I think I was feeling very constricted from working in the corporate environment and spending so much time at home working on stuff.. Just needed a change.

Regardless, life is just continuing as normal . The doctor said I have high cholesterol, so I'm going to start working out. Whee!

Theater Light

Ok so back in the day, say 6 yrs ago, when I first put together my home theater, I bought one of these.


It's an ideal-lume standard 6500k video bias light.

So what the hell does that mean, you ask??

Well, it means it's specially calibrated to open your iris to a very specific degree, which makes everything you watch much more realistic and color-accurate. It's what video editors use to color-correct everything.

They are excellent. They're placed behind whatever type of monitor you use, and completely remove eye-strain, and also make it much nicer to watch stuff in a darkened room.

So why am I talking about this?? Well, my old one died, about a year ago. It had a good run, and then just gave up. I never replaced it, because I was in the middle of buying a house/saving for trips/ and spending my money on everything else.

I finally ordered one this week!! Hooray!! As a bonus, this time, I'll get to mount it on the wall behind my set (last time I was in a rented house, didn't want to drill holes), so it will work even better!

I'm planning to tie it into my power conditioner/protector, a Pure AV60 , and set it up so it can be switched on with the power switch on the front.

If this all works out, it's gonna be sweet.

Back in the office

So I bit the bullet and went back in the office today.. the doc says I probably shouldn't be communicable any more, and the bosses boss is coming by to boot.

Here I sit, workin on stuff, but suprisingly feeling crappier than either of the days I was actually laid up at the house. Not suprising I guess, at least I wasn't constantly reminded I was sick at home.

Ah well, tomorrow the wife is having her wisdom teeth taken out, so i'll be back at the house taking care of her, the sick taking care of the sick! Party this weekend??

No, I think not.

As a bonus, here's a picture!

Ok, so I started feeling shitty on Saturday morning, but I drank a ton of juice, took robotussin, and Monday afternoon I thought I was finally over it.

Went to bed monday night.... Proceeded to COUGH MYSELF TO DEATH for 8 hours straight. I'm talking jumping up every hour or so to run to the bathroom with involuntary tears streaming from my eyes, afraid I'm gonna puke. So basically I keep myself and my wife up all night.. but here's the kicker.

I wake up this morning, and I feel ok. I definately don't feel like I missed an entire night's sleep, and I sure don't feel like I spent the whole night coughing. My chest is a little sore, but that's it.

So I head into work (with my wife telling me that I need to go to the doctor, which I despise..) I'm at work for about an hour, maybe two, before my wife sends me an e-mail, asking me to call her when I get done at the Doctor's office and let her know what I have. Yes.. she's crafty. I'm sure she knew if she called me, or sent me an e-mail outright saying "You need to go to the doctor" I wouldn't have gone. So I go.

Annnnnnndddddd I have bronchitis!!! Hooray!!! So I cancel the dentist appointment I had for later (oh it was looking like a fun day already), proceed to go convince the pharmacist that yes, I DO have insurance, spend 60 bucks on 3 bottles of pills and some liquid, and then work from home the rest of the day. (Yes, I'm stubborn). Not to mention the fact that after the other guys in my office left, we had quite a few things come in.

So in the interest of not keeping my wife up for another night, I volunteered to sleep on the couch. To her credit, she tried to take the spare bed, but I refused and took the couch, I'm not going to make her suffer because i'm sick, and it's not likely I'll get much sleep anyway. I'm annoyed, i'm missing my friends, I haven't had a drink in a week, and it's lame. I don't have a good reason for telling you guys, but i've been here awhile, and respect everyone here quite a bit, so I figured I'd share my pain. Anyone else having a crappy day?

King Kong - Or why I'm done with the Theater

Alrighty then. So I've been sick the ENTIRE weekend, and we finally decided to go out today. We finally went to go see King Kong. Don't ask, I still haven't seen it.

We sat there for a whole hour waiting for people to shut the hell up. Kid behind us?? Whispering. Parents of kid sitting to the left and right?? Whispering. People to the right? Whispering.

I was convinced there was a problem with the sound system thanks to all the hissing going on.. nope, just people who decided the theater was the best place to have their HOUR LONG DISSERTATION on the movie that was ON THE SCREEN AT THE TIME.

When did we get to this point?? When did people stop going to a movie to watch the damn movie?? I've been going to movies less and less frequently for exactly this reason, and today is the first time i've walked out, gotten a refund for my tickets, and gone home.

I swear, I sat there for an hour, and I couldn't pay attention to any of the dialog. I could tell you a story outline, but I have seen the original Kong, and most of it would be from that.

From now on, my theater money is going towards my home theater, and I'll be watching movies in peace. Am I the only one having this problem??

Dark and Stormy

It was a dark and stormy night.

Ok, in all actuality, it wasn’t that dark and stormy.  It was dark and sickly, however.  

I got to spend this Saturday sick.   How fun is that??  Make it through the whole work week, start feeling crappy on Friday night, and wake up sick Saturday morning.   Bummer.

Strangely, it was kind of a red letter day, especially for a sickly boy.   My very first character in World of Warcraft hit 60!!   As an additional bonus, I took a break from WoW, and finished Shadow of the Colossus.  What an interesting and excellent game.   Highly recommended.  

Welcome to Blogland!

Well hello there. Welcome to the Corner of the Blanket on the web, where we like to curl up, scream occasionally, and generally just relax in a nice warm morning.