Muzac

I'm not a big music.....umm....connoisseur. I have no idea how good music made - I'm not really sure what tempo means. To me, my enjoyment of music is kind of like "Music of Food" section of Ratatouille - where its something I see but have no real idea what is making it happen. While I'm probably more of an tv/movie/audio-book guy to straight up music here are some of my favorite albums:

  • The Fragile - I keep coming back to this. When I first heard it, it was pretty much the first time I ever heard NIN and it blew my mind wide open. It has still stuck with me to this day.
  • Kid A - while I'm not a fan of Radiohead any more (I mean they are good but I just don't care that much) this was the first album of theirs I heard. Once again, blew my mind wide open so I hold a soft spot for it.
  • LOTR Score - one of the best film scores ever made. Period.
  • Flash Gordon - one of the best film scores ever made. Period. This album wholly represents childhood sci-fi superhero fantasies. I wish someone would really capture it for a video game.
  • Bachelor No. 6 - Aimee Mann's undersold romantic masterpiece. If you have an open mind and don't mind well written pop style songs, this is the best stuff out there.

Marriage and Zombies

Laura was in town last weekend and I think we both agreed it was one of the best weekend visits we've had since having to live apart. While we agreed to not over analyze it too much, I think a lot of it came from just having those right conditions. One of the biggest ones was having pretty good weeks and work and finishing on with great Fridays. While in theory we should be working on separating work from personal life, our current situation is really based all on work. So if work is going well, we are going well. For me, I also am trying to be more productive with my iPhone App I'm working on in my spare time. The more I work on it, the better I feel for at least 2-3 days. So its kind of become like working out - I don't want to do it sometimes but I know if I just push through, I will feel much better then having not done it. On that note, I plan on posting some pics of my app hopefully later this week. Tonight is going to be a big push to try to get done with the 1st proto. I'll have more info on my iTastic Blog which you can find on the oh-so-convient side bar on the right.

I have much to share, so lets get into the meat of it. First off, L4D just released some new DLC a few days ago (free btw!) and it is fan-f***ing-tastic. The big addition is a new mode called "Survival." In this new mode, you can select an crescendo-event (or finale) from any campaign in the game (on the 360 version you can only do selected events from each campaign). The area will be modified from the original (certain paths will be blocked off, etc) and there will be copious amounts of explosives to go around. All you need to do is last as long as you possibly can once the event starts. Each time you die, you just need to try and beat your old time. Pretty simple? The catch is that the enemies are incredibly hard. First off, you'll face a flood of zombies, then specials, then a tank but before you know it, it will happen all over again. There is essentially a constant threat no matter what you do. The best part of the experience is that its incredibly short but amazingly intense. Even if you die over and over again, you were only playing for 2 minutes so its not like you lost a lot of "progress". After my initial runs of my favorite crescendo events I can already tell that this mode alone is going to keep me playing for hours and coupled with the easy going "drop-in/drop-out" system that L4D already established, they've just bumped this game back up to the top of my list.

I have a second...but I can't remember what it was. I'll get back to it after lunch.

Random Things #1

Things I just feel like saying:

  1. Dawn of War 2 is still incredible. The amount of detail put into the game just leaves me craving for more. If I had any complaints, I'd like more skirmish vs AI options (like special scenarios or maps built for co-op - like Assault missions from SP).
  2. Is is sad that Team Meetings are a highlight for my week?
  3. RE5 was some good times.
  4. Back into WAR. Having a group of people to play with on a normal basis makes all the difference. Since the game is about PvP, its fun to jump in and just mess shit up.
  5. iPhone programming is fun. I just wish I'd do more of it. Next up: Random Map Generation!

Watercooler Chat for Dummies

Awhile back, I was talking to my older brother and discussing how my dis-interest in sports has a big effect around the halls of my job. A lot of "watercooler" talk is around sports and then eventually leads to topics I can chime in on (like movies, games, etc). He told me to just call him and he can tell me what is up that week in sports. Then it hit me. Guys like me need a site that does that. Obviously ESPN and the like have that information but its a little tough to swallow if you don't already know what you are looking for. So what I am purposing is a site that is directed at people like me who don't care about sports but want to know what people are talking about that week. The site would tell you what teams are playing, what are famous rivalries, and what are the highlights to remember and most importantly WHY you should remember them. Hopefully with this information you can stage an interest and break into a conversation and at least get friendlier with people you work with.

Watercooler Chat for Dummies.