Well, I’m back at the helm of a computer that can be called my own.

Sorry I haven’t written in awhile, but based on the context of the previous post, I hope you’ll understand.

So, once again, here are the things I’m up to lately:

• Playing both Diablo II and Max Payne again…I’m not sure why, but I can never seem to shake these games.

• Playing the 1 vs 100 beta on Xbox Live pretty often. I’d like to get some Xbox Live Party action going with the family, and maybe they could help me on some of those questions I can’t quite fathom.

• I’d like to think I have interviews scheduled soon, but I don’t want to jinx it, so let’s just say that I’ve got some opportunities…

• The Singers & Swing music channel on my TV is getting an awful lot of use…take from that what you will.

• I have a compulsion to watch The Price is Right every morning, and I’m pretty sure Big Brother will consume my world when it returns July 9th…

• Budget trucks are about half a expensive as U-Haul. Just so you all know.

• The computer I now have is the same model, but slightly beefier inside…not to mention the awesome amount of RAM.

• I’ve been thinking about firearms again. My thoughts about things seem to go in cycles.

• Sleep hasn’t been coming terribly easy these last few nights. I read for an hour or so (From a Buick 8…very good read), turn off the light, and just sort of lay there, but my mind is far from drifting off. I never think about how much I’m processing until I try to stop.

• Also I’m not sure what position I end up in, but my collarbone seems to hurt recently too.

• Days-old diaper and ground beef containers mix in my garbage can to make such a lovely aroma.

• And on a crappy note, my new computer has one dead pixel. It’s not enough to warrant a return, but enough to rub me the wrong way.

• Guns and Roses and Metallica songs suck in Rock Band. Like they’re made hard just for the sake of being difficult. I hate that.

Other than that folks, I’ve nothing to report.

Be sure to check out Alaina’s site as she’s got new pictures up…plus it’s a lot more interesting to look at that cute little guy than listen to me drone on.

But thanks for reading all the same.

[i/o]

(Been thinking about finishing “The Attic”…)

Click Here.

Thought you’d all like to hear the sounds of what may or may not be the neighborhood pedophile.

Just near the end you can make out a sound that is somewhat like the screams of a thousand tortured souls.

Perhaps those of children.

Perhaps those of the innocent.

Sweet dreams!

[i/o]

Just caught a video of a radio interview that Stephen Page (formerly of BNL, *sob*) did with QTV about pretty much everything that’s been going on in the past year.

They touch on reasoning behind the break-up of the band, being a single dad, his weight loss, his cocaine incident, and what exactly is in his future.

Pretty interesting interview, and it’s a least nice to hear that they all still like each other. It just seems like Stephen wants to go whole hog into everything he does, and he couldn’t do that with the band at this current point in time, because he got so many other priorities. Oh well.

The video is here. (Careful, it’s almost 22 minutes long.)

Good luck to the guys.

[i/o]

Another Friday, another post, folks. You know the drill.

• Go KU! Playing Michigan State tonight to go to the Elite 8 [UPDATE: We lost. We were doing so good too, but we just lost steam in the second half. You think you have so much time to work with, but it all runs away like smoke through a keyhole. Can't wait for next year!]

• Have an appointment to look at a house tomorrow. Hopefully it goes well. It’d be nice to find a place that’s not a complete hole in the ground.

• Resident Evil 5 is being a little nicer to me. It’s about a 6 out of 10 if I’m playing by myself, but it shoots up to about an 8 if I’m playing co-op. Perhaps it’s just that the later levels are better than the earlier ones?

• Downloaded a Live album that BNL just released as a new re-tooled 4-person band. Live albums are of course never as perfect as a studio album is, but I still think they did a good job. Was happy to hear “Long Way Back Home”. Not a new song, but one they’ve never released save for their really really early stuff.

• I have been subscribed to the awesomeness that I can only describe as “Lego of the Month Club”. I think it’s actually called Brickmaster or some such thing, but I like my name better.

• Finally, I just found out a new Stephen King book is slated for release this fall.

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

’til next time, folks!

[i/o]

Time for another Friday Update!

Here’s the latest bits and pieces:

• Holy crap. Steve Page left the Barenaked Ladies. My world has been thrown into an uncomfortable skew. Last I heard they were in the studio making an album that celebrated their past 20 years…does that mean the album will never come out?

• Still playing Fallout 3. That game is longer than a creepy bus driver’s freakish thumbnail.

• Signed up for GameFly and got my first game! Sure, it’s Assassin’s Creed, a game I’ve owned before, but I wanted to go back and get that one last achievement. So sue me.

• Looks like the next NY trip will be the week of the 11th of March. More updates as I get them.

• Open question: Do they still make Steak-Umms any more?

• ‘Twas so nice today…looking forward to sleeping with the windows open not too long from now.

• Looking at house blueprints…it would appear that the only way to get a house you really love these days is to build it yourself.

• An addendum to that, there may yet be the ability to add secret rooms and such to it…maybe one so I can spy on houseguests.

• Midnight release of RE5 in just a few days, who’s with me?!

• You never realize how much you miss apple juice (or any juice for that matter) until it’s gone.

• I tried to watch that “Octomom” on an episode of Dr. Phil…I just couldn’t do it. Looking at her dumb duck-face and listening to her stupid excuses made the rage build in my veins like nothing I’ve felt in a long while. Plus she nods about almost everything, so she looked like a bobble head.

That’s it for now, folks. Thanks for reading!

[i/o]

Rush on the Colbert Report.

That’s all you need to know.

Go.

[i/o]

Just thought I’d toss up another drawing I did last night.

Not sure what it stemmed from, but it may have something to do with having this song on repeat in iTunes:

You Are A Pirate

Anyway, just thought I’d give you all a little more tablet junk as well as try and get that songs’ hooks into you.

Maybe I just need to go dig up some treasure or something.

[i/o]

So, I’m sure a few of you will get a kick out of this.

I had just gotten out of the shower, and Alaina had just hopped in, and she asked me, “Do you remember Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?” I was like “Hells yeah!”…because, you know…I remember it. But then I was talking to her about it, she didn’t remember the group that sang the opening theme, Rockapella.

So I went looking for some YouTube videos, and I’m proud to say that I was not disappointed in my search, and now you all get to reap the benefits of my laborious search.

Video 1: Rockapella singing the song. It’s from a concert, so they do some other stuff in the video, so you don’t have to watch all of it.

Video 2: The first two and-a-half minutes from the actual show. That includes the sweet “This was brought to you by” sections.

Enjoy!

[i/o]

Over on Alaina’s website (technically isn’t it called a sister blog?), there is a sweet little mention of yours truly:

Oh, yes, and I get mad at Ian for not mentioning me in his posts (it’s that selfish thing again) so I’m going to take this time to say Hi Ianny-poo-poo! Thanks for always cleaning out the litter box! You’re the best! Oh yeah and you’re the most amazing pretend guitar player on rock band! Even if you never beat it on expert!

You know it.

So now’s my turn to mention her.

Hi Alaina-bear! Thanks for growing a baby and getting up at weird hours to go to work! Thanks also for dealing with my whining about how his middle name shouldn’t be Robert! You’re the best! Oh yeah, and you’re the best at taking large and oddly-shaped poops that freak me the hell out!

There we go.

Now doesn’t everyone feel better? I know I do.

Speaking of Rock Band, the last set of 5 songs on Hard difficulty really ramp up the furious fretwork. I mean…really. There’s this one song, called Flirtin’ With Disaster by Molly Hatchet…I don’t know what kind of hopped-up kids it takes to beat this song, but I swear to God, playing a real guitar can’t even be this hard.

Seriously. Look at a video of what I’m supposed to beat (the guitar is on the left).

Granted, that’s the expert version, but I can tell you that the Hard version is very close to that.

Anyway, I beat the songs before it…so I’m sure I’ll eventually get it…and then cry myself to sleep once I can’t get through Expert. Oh well. I’m actually not that worried about Expert…I’m not too sure I’d want to be an expert at fake guitar anyway. Good enough is good enough in this instance.

Oh…and a note to the Daddio, when and if he decides to purchase it for the Wii: make sure to calibrate the lag. Seriously. It’s a pain to know you hit a note and the game says you didn’t.

Seriously.

[i/o]

P.S. Look at this hot girl.

Gotcha.

In my travels of the internets, looking for imagery that is both useful and amusing, I stumbled across this little morsel. To most, it will probably mean nothing. To few, it will mean the world. The size you are viewing it at is the size I found it in, so there’s no point in begging for larger, perhaps more printer-friendly size. Either way, enjoy this mashup between Evil Dead and I Can Has Cheezburger

Anyway, this morning, in those precious hours before I have to drag myself up a whole flight of stairs to go to work, I beat Mass Effect. I’ve been playing it nonstop for…well, the game says I’ve logged better than 40 hours, so I’m inclined to believe it.

There was only one problem I had with the game: the ending.

No, not how the game ended, but that it actually DID end. I didn’t want it to. It wasn’t one of those games where you just can’t wait to finish it simply to know that you don’t ever have to play it again (ahem, Banjo-Tooie), it was a rare occurrence where, even when the game goes on and on, the story is always engaging, the characters are dynamic and fleshed-out, and the infinitesimal subtleties that make a good experience great were all humming along, singing their own golden notes.

And that’s another thing: at one point about 3/4 to 4/5 of the way through the game, you are presented with a choice. There is no wrong choice you see (the game is laden with this great newcomer to the scene, choice), but perhaps your choice may end up with someone dying. Someone you’ve come to both respect and call friend. This is some of the sound team’s finest work. Sure, there are the scuttling strings during intense battles, but what really stood out was during that somber moment in the game. What could have been some hodge-podge of soppy violins and drums, was all so poignantly expressed through the heartfelt notes of a lone French Horn. I actually had to leave the game for awhile because…to be honest…the game had made me like the characters. I was identifying with them, fighting with them, killing for them. And one was taken from me, and I needed to be alone for a while.

I think that speaks to how finely crafted this game is. It also says something about BioWare’s commitment to both great storytelling and great gameplay.

[i/o]