So Kamil kept bugging me to update the site. Been busy working and playing games. September/October were some big months for games. I bought a ridiculous number in a short time. When I told Kamil that I had nothing to really talk about on my site, he said to review games, and I said no one would read them, and he said he would. So here goes:

Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy: Ambitious and over rated. Story line did not really “bend” as much as it “flexed slightly.” I only played through it once, but it was quite clear that nothing significant would really change if I played it again. It pretty much boils down to there being a “good” ending and a “bad” ending. Plot got really really pathetic near the end, as well.

Burnout Revenge: As bad ass as Burnout 3 was. Lots of mindless fun.

Myst V: Started strong, Ended strong, kind of slow in the middle. I was disappointed by the puzzles and the length of each age. I didn’t find the puzzles particularly inventive and you could probably play straight through the game in about 8 hours. That’s too short for an adventure game. I felt like I was barely starting the game and it was ending. As a fan of the series though, I enjoy how it wrapped the whole thing up. Oh, also from a technology standpoint, the facial animations (done mainly through texture work) and the complete graphics engine are pretty top notch.

We <3 Katamari: Please, King of the Cosmos, grace us with your presence in a third Katamari game. Can’t get enough of this one, I’m still collecting cousins.

Quake 4: Still playing this one. Engine is put to shame by F.E.A.R. in my opinion (see below). Pretty straight forward FPS. I’ll make it through the single player game eventually, but I’m in no hurry. The multiplayer is Quake 3, but prettier. I’ve got to get the frame rate up a little higher before diving into it more. Hopefully some sort of Rocket Arena 4 will come out, and some user made maps will make it better.

F.E.A.R.: Best FPS ever. At least in my opinion. The graphics are fantastic – shadows kick ass. Having your avatar cast a shadow is something that puts a level of immersion into the game that I’ve never seen. The absence of this in Quake 4 is totally noticable once you’ve played F.E.A.R. The scary moments are well spaced, and the fire fights are the best I have ever experienced. The Slo-Mo effect is fantastic; the sound shift and extra effects are perfect.

So, that’s a summary of stuff that I’ve played recently. I don’t think I’ve missed anything. I recently finished playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and am nearing the end of X-Men: Legends (finally).

So there, Kamil. Fsck off (and I mean that in the nicest way)!

Go see Serenity.

Done? Ok, now go see it again. I can only hope that Serenity is half as satisfying for those who’ve never seen Firefly as it is for those who might call themselves “browncoats.” I think that Joss Whedon’s style translated quite well to the big screen – the pacing is fantastic, and while the overall story is a bit depressing, the witty banter here and there lightens the mood perfectly.

I was disappointed to see that it didn’t take the #1 spot at the box office this week, and that at #2 it only raked in a little over $10 million. I’m crossing my fingers that word of mouth will push it forward and that while it might never have a huge weekend, it will have a good amount of longevity to make enough money to fund a sequel. Mal can’t be done with the Alliance just yet.

My car obviously has a giant target painted on the back of it that no one has told me about. Most people who know me know the saga of my car. My car lived out the first 5 years of its life in Montgomery County without incident. Then, it started living in P.G. county during my college years. My poor `94 Honda Accord was stolen twice in just over a 1 year span in the years of 2001/2002. Both times I got the car back, through blind luck. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that if it happened again, it was probably never coming back…and maybe that was for the best. The first time it was stolen it was taken from a Metro parking lot in the middle of the day. That’s just flat out bad luck. The second time, it was from my apartment complex’s parking lot, which was a factor of living in a complex that’s on a main road, easily accessible, and somewhat poorly lit at night.

Then, I moved to a nicer complex, that was not easy to breeze in and out of by random passers-by. My car stayed put for 2+ years, with no incidents whatsoever (outside of getting randomly egged right as I was moving again [which I have still not cleaned up properly because I'm lazy]). I move again, to a complex which is pretty much across the street from my old apartments where it got stolen the 2nd time. I have been there for about 4 months. Wednesday night, someone tried to steal my car again.

Tried, but were unsuccessful (luckily?). I’m not sure what prevented them from taking the car this time. Perhaps they were just crappy thieves and did something wrong while shoving a screw driver into the ignition cylinder. However, you can also lock the steering wheel of my car when you turn the car off (which I generally don’t do, but sometimes hit accidently exiting my car). I discovered that I had apparently locked the steering wheel upon trying to turn the wheel when the tow truck guy and I were attempting to maneuver my car into a better position for getting it on to the tow truck. When the steering wheel locks, you need to be able to turn the key in the ignition to unlock it. Neither the towing guy or I could manage to turn the cylinder with a screw driver to unlock the wheel. Perhaps blind luck prevented my car from being stolen. I have to wonder if locking the wheel would’ve prevented the first two successful thefts. Maybe its a habit I’ll get into.

Regardless, this leaves me at my wits end, once again. I can’t stop thinking that its entirely possible that I’ll get my car fixed and have this happen again next month. I certainly can’t afford to buy a new car right now. I also just am not in a position to move. I even hate thinking to myself that its clearly the area I’m living in that’s the problem. I try to cut P.G. County a lot of slack, but its rather hard to do right now. The whole thing leaves me frustrated beyond comprehension.

On a Clone High kick, thanks to Jeb getting me the whole series as Divx movies. I, er, uh, think this is the best cartoon ever.

Saw Fantastic Four over the weekend, and I must say, that I think the reviews have been overly harsh. I thought it was a good, straight forward, fun movie. Really, I thought it was exactly what a comic book movie should be – it glossed over the things you shouldn’t think too hard about (“Our outfits were changed too”, and Doom’s mask) and instead just tried to have fun. There were some good one liners, and as long as Jessica Alba wasn’t on screen, the acting wasn’t too bad. I swear, she’s not hard to look at, but she’s terrifyingly hard to listen to. Katie noted that her idea of acting is giving a puppy dog head tilt every third sentence she delivers. Would I have liked to see the FF actually get to be fantastic a little more than I actually did? Sure. But that has honestly been the case in every comic book movie so far. All in all, I say go see it, but don’t expect something that you can’t possibly get from a movie called Fantastic Four. Oh – why is it that they dropped the “The” from the title, anyway? They are The Fantastic Four, aren’t they?

On the art front, I’ve really wanted to draw lately, but haven’t had anything to actually draw. No pictures bouncing around in my head these days. Just too busy between work, Frisbee, and (man I’m so cool) bowling. I’ll get back on it soon, I swear.

Ok so the title has nothing to do with anything.

I’m now moved into my own place, and man am I tired. I don’t know how I ended up with so much crap. I’m a pack rat by nature, but I’m also sentimental, which makes me keep even more stuff than I normally might. I’m slowly getting set up at my new place; lots of empty Ikea boxes lying around. New queen size bed? Friggin huge. Spiffy entertainment center? Check. Matching coffee table? Check. Piles and piles of boxes to unpack? Unfortunately, check.

I find having essentially everything material I own in stacks of boxes somewhat unnerving for some reason. I can’t really explain what it is about it, but seeing all my stuff condensed down into a tiny place is kind of weird. I am not the sum of my possessions, but something about it strikes a nerve. Perhaps it just makes me feel unsettled – its indicitave of a state of transition, and I generally dislike change. Moving is a big change to me, particularly since I’m moving into my own place for the first time. First I get business cards at work, now I’m the sole name on a lease. This whole “adult” thing just won’t seem to leave me alone and let me play my video games in peace.

Speaking of video games, let me give a couple of giant middle fingers out to Sony and Microsoft with regards to the PS3 and XBox 360 (which is a horrendous name). Screw you both for making strangely shaped consoles which won’t stack happily in my entertainment center. And Microsoft? Double screw you for not being completely backwards compatible.

So, I added something kind of fun to the page today.  When you move your mouse over the links in the picture list on both the main page, and on the Pictures page, you’ll get a little popup thumbnail of the picture.   See – I did learn something at my last job!   The wonders of simple javascript. Just something to add a bit of motion and interactivity to the page – hope you guys like it.