"For your health."

Very good, but brick not hit back.

2009-01-29T13:59:00.004-05:00

Bloodsport is such an awesome movie. We got it from Netflix yesterday and Erin watched it with me. The movie really is the epitome of 80's martial art movies, especially the soundtrack. Nostalgia aside, the fight scenes are still great and it has all the trappings of most other good JCVD movies: a gratuitous ammount of scenes showing Van Damme doing splits, Bolo Yeung, slo-mo jump spinning heel kicks, and hilarious training montages.

Death Race

2009-01-17T20:25:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure how you could make a movie called "Death Race" boring, but somebody managed to pull it off.

Overload

2009-01-15T11:29:00.005-05:00

I have way too many things on my plate right now. In an effort to figure out how many things I actually do have going on, I thought I'd try and make a list. Hopefully this will help me prioritize? (not my strong suit...)

-I'm porting a major project at work right now, which could very likely require overtime pretty soon.
-I am redesigning Color Bind for XNA Community Games (again) and want to get it launched as quickly as possible.
-I'm working on porting Color Bind to mobile phones again for a contest that requires you to use a particular set of development tools.
-I need to read a pile of programming and math books I've acquired over the past few months.
-I'm trying to make time to learn how to play the awesome guitar I got for Christmas.
-I really want to get back into learning Japanese. I was doing great before I slacked off.
-Because of all the other stuff going on our new apartment is still in need of some serious unpacking (which is why i haven't posted any pictures here yet).
-I was doing great with a regular exercise regiment before the holidays...not so much lately.
-I've been having a lot of fun helping Wes out with the revival of Idle Hours (his game website) and I want to do a lot more stuff for it.
-In an effort to become more independent in developing games, I want to practice drawing and pixel art again, as well as learn how to use some music editing software.
-In addition to all of the above I am also trying to find time to play games with Erin (Rock Band 2, Animal Crossing, Scene It, Halo3, ect.) and also the games I play by myself.

I don't know if I need to make a priority list, or schedule or what. I know I can do all this stuff, but I just can't seem to find the time necessary. And I am constantly forgetting to spend time on several of these things every week.

I think the core of the problem is that a lot of the things on this list, namely anything game development related, is being done in hopes that I can become financially independent eventually. But...I'm not right now, so I also have to do 40+ hours at my job every week. If I could just get rid of that...things would be awesome. But who doesn't think that?

What I'm Playing 12/31/2008

2008-12-31T14:06:00.001-05:00

Last one of the year:

Catherine the Great

2008-12-19T10:40:00.001-05:00

(10:27:11 AM) erinthedreamer: Kyle Busch was born on May 2nd
(10:27:27 AM) erinthedreamer: i must kill him
(10:27:49 AM) digita1alchemy: awwwww...
(10:27:54 AM) digita1alchemy: lol, how did you find that out
(10:28:05 AM) erinthedreamer: i also share a birthday with Catherine the Great
(10:28:08 AM) erinthedreamer: Wikipedia
(10:30:34 AM) digita1alchemy: the woman who was crushed to death while she fucked a horse?
(10:30:54 AM) erinthedreamer: yup
(10:31:06 AM) digita1alchemy: I know that random fact only because of my awesome wife.
(10:31:15 AM) erinthedreamer: :-)
(10:32:00 AM) digita1alchemy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_II_of_Russia#Death
(10:32:45 AM) erinthedreamer: hmmm I'm only saying what my World history teach told us
(10:32:56 AM) digita1alchemy: lol, i know
(10:33:01 AM) erinthedreamer: i thought it was true
(10:33:42 AM) erinthedreamer: oh well i'm still going to think that bc it's cool
(10:33:47 AM) digita1alchemy: http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/catherinethegreat/a/histmyths1.htm
(10:34:05 AM) digita1alchemy: http://www.snopes.com/risque/animals/catherine.asp
(10:35:04 AM) digita1alchemy: lol, it is cool
(10:35:05 AM) erinthedreamer: stop proving it wrong!
(10:35:09 AM) digita1alchemy: pretend you didnt read that stuff
(10:35:17 AM) digita1alchemy: I'm just showing you
(10:35:22 AM) erinthedreamer: I want to live in my fantasy world were great people die from fucking horses
(10:35:23 AM) digita1alchemy: i thought you might be interested where it came from
(10:35:29 AM) digita1alchemy: LOL
(10:36:09 AM) digita1alchemy: That is the coolest thing I've ever heard anyone say in a long time.

And another one bites the dust.

2008-12-17T13:34:00.004-05:00

Erin and I were playing Rock Band a couple nights ago and having a great time, when all of a sudden at the end of a song the game froze. No big deal, I reset the game and we started again. Then it froze again. And again. We swapped the game out and it froze yet again. And then...it happened. 3 red lights.

Coincidentally, it happened on the same game, and almost the exact same time as last year. Only this time it was on our Elite, which we hastily went out and bought when our original system died last December...because we needed a "backup". So while I had second thoughts at that time, it was pretty awesome Sunday to just fill out a repair order, plug up the other Xbox, and keep on playing. The "coffin" should come today. Goodnight sweet prince...

What I'm playing 12/12/2008

2008-12-12T11:32:00.001-05:00

Moving...

2008-12-05T09:20:00.004-05:00

We're moving again. Not nearly as far this time...we're actually moving to a new apartment in the same complex we currently live in. We're downsizing from a 2-bedroom apartment to a 1-bedroom one. It's just the two of us, and while the extra space was nice, saving money is more important at the moment. We want to be able to buy a house in a few years, so this is the first step on the path to doing that.

The move date is on the 20th, so right now we have a little less than 2 weeks to pack everything and get all the necessary details straightened out. We'll get everything done, but it's just stressful right now, particularly for Erin who handles most of the "administrative" stuff. I'm going to try to do most of the packing, but we've both been sick the past week so we're kind of off to a late start. It's not the best time of year to be doing this kind of thing. We just got back from 5 days in Tennessee for Thanksgiving and will be going back for Christmas right after we move. Hectic probably isn't a strong enough word.

I'll try to take pictures of the new apartment once we get everything unpacked. It's on the first floor (we were on the second), and it has a small deck looking out to a lake.

Secret of Nintendo's Success.

2008-10-29T20:03:00.003-05:00

From a recent MTV Multiplayer Blog interview with Shigeru Miyamoto:

On the other hand, we have a very large development team at Nintendo. And a lot of the members of our team play a lot of popular and more recent games. When they do that, they have a tendency to look at similar games that are out there and then they start to focus on: What can we do to make sure that our games are as good as those other games in a similar style? Whereas I feel that my job is actually to stop them and say, “That’s not the line of thinking we need to have.” Because, that results in us creating something that is more and more like those other types of games. My role becomes to put the brakes on and say, “We need to change our direction and way of thinking.” That’s the only way we’re going to be able to create something that’s unique and different.

Miyamoto gets it. He's one of the only ones.

Delicious

2008-10-15T14:14:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again:

I am trying to buy up more than my fare share of it in hopes they'll opt to keep it around even after the holidays.

Everything's Better in Japan

2008-09-07T17:58:00.002-05:00

Erin recently grabbed the Japanese Kill Bill Vol. 2 Box for me, and it finally arrived Friday! I refuse to buy the half-assed North American DVD/Blu Ray, and I am getting impatient waiting for The Whole Bloody Affair set...so this will fill the void for now. Time to track down Vol. 1--which comes with a miniature Hattori Hanzo sword (among other stuff)!

New Office

2008-09-04T09:56:00.004-05:00

We moved into a new office at work this week. We had planned to move in a month or so, but then suddenly found out we needed to move immediately, so it's been pretty chaotic. There are workers pretty much building the new area around us as we work. There are yellow moving crates everywhere, as we're still unpacking them. I'll try and post new pics when everything is all set up.

For real.

2008-09-02T18:33:00.002-05:00

I am officially working on a new personal project. Like, as of now. Right now... Right this minute.

Heavens to Betsy

2008-08-27T10:36:00.002-05:00

In a rut.

2008-08-25T12:13:00.003-05:00

Per usual, I suck horribly at updating my blog. It's not like anything interesting hasn't happened since my last post, only now I'd never remember all of it if I tried to go back and recap. Oh well. I do, however, still plan to put some pics of our new car up here at some point...only it really needs to be washed first.

Right now I am mainly struggling with trying to manage priorities. I've lived in Raleigh for a year now and have been at my job for a year. Everything is well and good, but I feel like I am standing still. Getting my job and moving here was a huge step, but since then I've just sat back and enjoyed everything. It's been easy to do because life is undoubtedly better than it's ever been for me, but I'm still stopped short of accomplishing the huge laundry list of goals that I have. I just haven't been making any progress on anything at all. I got a late start on the whole getting a good-paying job thing anyway, so I really need to be on the ball. Just off the top of my head I want to:

-Pay off all of our debt faster (need even more monies to do this).
-Get another car.
-Buy a house!
-The above needs to be settled before we can have kids.
-Get in better shape
-Take a trip to Tokyo (ideally before the kids come)
-Work on any of the 10 or so ideas I have for games in my spare time...I've started none so far. I also want to port Color Bind to XNA.
-Learn a bunch of new things. More programming stuff mainly. I really need to improve my math skills. This goes hand-in-hand with getting a better job.
-Learn at least basic conversational Japanese.

And tons of other things I'm forgetting. Lately though, I've been pretty much stuck in a rut. When I am at home I don't do much of anything other than play games and watch T.V. Somehow, someway I need to suck it up and put off doing "fun" stuff until I get some of these more important things behind me. And I will. It's just hard... I'm such a poor manager of time :(

"And here...we...go."

2008-07-12T15:58:00.000-05:00

"Look at the size of that whammer!"

2008-07-10T20:05:00.005-05:00

Erin and I are going to see Hellboy II tonight! I'm pretty excited. I'd watch the original in anticipation, but I let someone at work borrow it. Right now I am trying to make oven BBQ chicken and some other stuff for Erin before she gets home from class. I wish we had a grill... We have some community grills here at the apartments but I'd much rather have my own.

Sega released a demo of Phantasy Star Universe for PSP yesterday so I've been messing with that. It's a Japanese demo but I've played the Xbox 360 version so much I can more or less navigate the menus blindfolded anyway. The game will soon be able to suck up my free time even when I'm not at home. I've also been thinking about restarting a game called Ace Online (formerly Space Cowboy). Its basically an MMO game where instead of creating a character you create a ship that you get to fly around and customize and even battle other people. It's free and was kind of a stopgap for me until I originally bought PSU.

I have to work again this weekend... It sucks but I need to make up for lost time for the 4th of July anyway. We need extra money for all the movies coming out in the next few weeks anyway (Step Brothers, Batman IMAX).

An update

2008-07-07T15:13:00.003-05:00

I just got back from Spending the holiday weekend at my Dad's in Virginia Beach. We had a good time...I always enjoy hanging out with my Dad. My cousin Brandon joined the Navy and is currently stationed there so we got to hang out with him. We rode go-karts and went to Busch Gardens, which was awesome. We rode this:

Erin got her A+ Certification today! I am really excited for her and she's already checking out potential jobs. Meanwhile, she still has 7-8 more certifications she's going to get over the next year or so. Yeah, she's pretty awesome. This is probably the happiest I have seen her since we moved here.

Since the last time I posted on here we've also gotten a new car and we went to the Coke 600. I'll post some pictures of both pretty soon. Oh, and we got a new kitten who needs a name still. Other than that, just lots of working. I've been wanting to ramp up work on some stuff in my spare time but it hasn't worked out so far. I've lacked discipline lately.

What I'm Playing: 06/08/08

2008-06-07T23:03:00.001-05:00

Random Stuff

2008-05-11T21:25:00.006-05:00

I've been extremely busy lately, mainly with work. I've had free time with which to update my blog, but I've been spending it doing other things instead. I've actually started writing new entries 4 or 5 times before, usually at work, but I always ended up being distracted or pulled away in the middle of doing it and ended up just closing it before finishing. Even as I write this I'm wondering if I'll actually finish this one.

I'm working another 12-straight days after having to work both days this weekend. We unfortunately laid some people off recently which has really increased an already huge workload for my department.

The summer movie blitz has finally begun. I've seen Iron Man and Speed Racer so far, both were awesome. I've never seen anything like Speed Racer before. It's always nice to see movies with real ambition like that get made. Erin is excited for Prince Caspian but it looks like Indy 4 is next for me.

Speaking of Indiana Jones, we're going back to the Tri-cities for the first time to see the midnight showing of the movie at the Cinemall. I'm extremely excited because it's going to be kind of a mini-vacation. I get to hang out with my friends for 3 days and then we're driving to Charlotte to see the Coca-Cola 600, which is my birthday present from Erin's parents.

I've bought too much stuff since we moved here. It's nice to have money for a change though. I got a Playstation 3 a few weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to play it much, but it's nice to have all the systems out of the way. Now if I am interested any game that comes out on any system, I can get it. The same with going to the store to look at games...I can look at anything.

Overall I guess things are going pretty well here. Erin doesn't like her job but she has 2 promising interviews this week. I'm trying to push myself to work on a new personal project on the side, but it's been pretty difficult considering the aforementioned lack of free time. We're also trying to pay off all my debt and buy a better car. I probably would have visited everyone back in Tennessee a few times by now but we're afraid to take Erin's car on a long trip because of how bad it uses oil. Hopefully once we get something else we can travel around a bit more.

And that's a half-assed update of what's going on in my life right now. Hopefully I can post something a little more introspective soon.

Codemasters owes me a pair of pants.

2008-03-19T15:31:00.000-05:00

Oh my...

Round 2

2008-03-18T12:57:00.004-05:00

So I've been at my job for a little over 6 months now. I've learned a ton, both from a technical standpoint and also about the game industry in general. I still love my job, but I've noticed lately that it's not really filling that creative void inside. Even though it was hard as hell, I had a blast working on my first game, Color Bind. In my current job (porting), however, I don't get to actually create any kind of content for the games I am working on...it's purely technical work.

So, I've decided to start working on some new projects in my spare time. The farthest along right now is an online collectable card game for PC (and maybe Xbox 360) that I'm collaborating with Garrett and Will on. Besides that, I've also got some pretty solid ideas for a mobile shmup and a 2D beat 'em up. I'm also messing around with trying to learn more about XNA as well.

I'll post any updates related to these games here on my blog.

What I'm Playing: 03/14/08

2008-03-14T08:18:00.002-05:00

"GET!"

2008-03-10T12:23:00.003-05:00

So, I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl Saturday night. Erin and I hit Wal-Mart at about 11:30pm and there was already a few people in line. At midnight there were probably about 10 people total. I'm sure it beat the crowd at the nearest Gamestop, plus I didn't get hassled about trade-ins, pre-orders, or subscribing to a shitty magazine.

The game is awesome. I played it well into the night on Saturday and then most of the day yesterday. I really, really like Olimar. And my old favs, Peach and Yoshi are pretty much the same as Melee, which is a good thing. Overall, I feel like the game has less of an impact than Melee intially did due to being more of an incremental upgrade whereas Melee was a complete overhall. Right now I'm the only person I know that has has it, which is keeping me from playing online much since random matches seem to be broken at the moment. On the bright side I guess Jesse and Garrett will have the game in a day or two. And I'm pretty sure Aaron at work will have it when he comes back from his honeymoon. And Will, if he ever finds a Wii. Everyone else pussed out, for one reason or another :(

Overload

2008-01-21T11:31:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty occupied since right before Christmas and haven't posted any. I meant to post a few pictures of everything I got for Christmas, but I don't know if I'll get around to that or not. Right now I have too many movies to watch, too many games to play, and too many other things to get done, that aren't getting done because of the first two. Like putting together our new end table, putting away the Christmas tree, dusting the house, throwing away all the cardboard boxes we've acquired since Christmas, and lots lots more. Plus I've been working more than usual lately. Also, No More Heroes comes out on Tuesday/Wednesday and I'm pretty much in full hype mode for that. And I got a Star Wars PSP last night, and Erin got Scene It for Xbox 360. And we also got a new coffee table in addition to the end table I mentioned before. Oh, and I got new shoes a few days ago (well, "bought" them...they havent arrived yet). Yeah...lots of stuff going on.

I'm also in the process of making new random pictures for my header.

Why hello there, Wii.

2007-12-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

When Erin gets off work tonight around 10 we're leaving for Tennessee to visit her family for Christmas. We're going to drive until I get tired and then stop at a hotel for the night. It's about an 8 hour drive and we thought this would be better than leaving early tomorrow and wasting most of the day driving.

Also, My Xbox 360 finally red-ringed. At Christmas. FU Microsoft.

Neato.

2007-12-19T00:15:00.000-05:00

I completely redid my Myspace page tonight. I'm not quite sure what prompted it. I guess I was just tried of my old layout. The new one is a lot more colorful. I like it.

25 hours in 2 days.

2007-12-14T23:51:00.000-05:00

I've worked over 24 hours the past 2 days and I have to go back to work at 8am tomorrow, which is normally one of my days off. This is because we have a project that has be to be finished by Monday morning, pretty much no matter what. So I guess this is my first experience with "crunch time". Its only a few days, so it could be a lot worse.

Same old, same old...

2007-12-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so not a whole lot going on lately. Just working and getting ready for Christmas. We have the tree up...maybe I'll put the pictures on here when I finally put the apartment ones up. Aaron, Brad and Brian from work came over last week and played Rock Band with me. I'm the drummer since I seemed to the best at it. They came up with a name for a band we're going to create next time they're over..."Fister Face Fifty Five."

Erin isn't enjoying her job very much right now, which sucks. She doesn't work with the best people. I'm really hoping we can work something out within the next year or so where she can go back to school.

I need a car...mine is about to die on me. This is unfortunate particularly because I've been wanting to go back to Tennessee and visit people recently.

I love King of Fighters XI. I am not great at it, but I'm learning. I've pretty much stuck with the same 3 or 4 characters in the KoF games up until now, so I've been trying to branch out a little. I really like Ash and am becoming okay with him. I've also been using Vanessa purely because I love her sprite...but I'm not that great with her. I'm not sure how to use those dash moves she has just yet. Awesome game though...I'm hoping when I do get to go back to Tennessee one weekend I can actually play some people.

Holy crap...

2007-12-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I completed my Holiday 2007 trifecta (PSU: AotI, Super Mario Galaxy and Rockband)...now it looks like this is without a doubt my new most anticipated release:

Christmas comes early!!!

2007-11-30T23:08:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Erin :)

ONLY 4 MORE HOURS, AARRRGH!

2007-11-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

I was pretty good about updating there for awhile. Not sure what happened.

I've taken pictures of the apartment. I'm going to upload them on here...I'm just not sure when.

Today is officially the longest day of work EVER. The first PSU expansion was released on Xbox Live Marketplace last night. I actually set the alarm for 5 in the morning so I could wake up and start downloading it. I got up earlier than usual this morning to hopefully check it out some before I had to go to work but the servers didn't go back up until 9am. I got to mess around for about 25 minutes or so before I had to come to work. Ugh. 6 o'clock cannot come soon enough. I'm refreshing the PSO World forums like every 5 minutes.

I also got Super Mario Galaxy last Monday. So far...its probably the best game I have ever played. Probably. I'll have to finish it and let it sink in some. Yoshi's Island is a hell of a game. I rushed through it the first few days, and I'm up to 59 stars now. However, I've since slowed down and I'm trying to...savor it more, I guess. You only get to play games this awesome for the first time once. And now that the PSU expansion is out I'll probably pop in Galaxy to get a few stars every time I need a break. I can "beat" the game at 60 stars...but I think I've decided to get all 120 stars before I head into the final battle. I think the payoff will be better that way.

Erin has created a World of Warcraft account. We got a 14-day free trial when we bought South Park Season 10 and she finally installed it a few weeks ago. I would say she is now at full-blown addiction. I kind of gave her grief about it initially (mostly jokingly) because I don't really like the game. But now I'm just glad she's found something else she likes playing. She has also gotten a job as an assistant manager at a movie theater here in Raleigh, which is cool. She seems to like it pretty well, except for a few things. It's better than Cingular was, anyway. And we can see movies for free...even if we haven't taken advantage of that yet.

With Erin working now we're just ramping up for some shopping the day after Thanksgiving and for Christmas. But I'll post more about all that later. But yeah...everything is going pretty well at the moment :)

Furniture Get

2007-10-19T14:19:00.000-05:00

I am feeling quite a bit better today. Erin's Grandparent's stayed at our apartment again last night on their way back home from Kitty Hawk, NC. They gave me some Tylenol PM last night and while I didn't wake up feeling much better, I feel pretty good as I type this. My throat is still a little sore.

In my last post I mentioned that the next big thing we needed for our apartment was a couch. Well last night we went out with Erin's grandparents and got a couch. And a chair. It was pretty unexpected. We had been substituting the futon for a couch, which wasn't working out very well. I will take some pictures of the apartment with all of this snazzy new furniture tonight and post them on here later.

Argh.

2007-10-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

I feel awful. My throat is sore and my whole body aches. I started feeling under the weather early yesterday. I've been taking vitamin C, aspirin, and eating throat lozenges like candy. I do feel better right now than I did this morning...so maybe I'll be fine by tomorrow.

Erin's grandparents got us a new table and chairs. The apartment is looking nicer and nicer all the time. Next objective: couch. I'll post some pictures on here soon.

OMG, the "1up Cup" in Phantasy Star Universe starts tonight! Time to get r4r3z.

I bought King of Fighters XI online last night, despite my lack of a functional PlayStation 2. It is the first of my most-anticipated games being released this holiday season. The others being Super Mario Galaxy, PSU: Ambition of the Illuminous, FirePro Wrestling Returns, and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. There are more games that I want...but these are the absolute must-haves.

Stuff!

2007-09-28T20:38:00.001-05:00

I posted some pictures of all the cool new stuff I've acquired within the past few months. Click on the thumbnails to see them full size with descriptions.

What I'm playing: 09/28/07

2007-09-28T10:02:00.000-05:00

More to come.

2007-09-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting at work right now on my lunch break finally updating this thing. I've been living in Raleigh for over a month now so I would say that I am pretty settled in. Everything feels more or less normal now...the new apartment, doing my job, going places, ect. I do miss being close to friends and also the familiarity I had from living in the same place for 14 years...even if I didn't really like it.

Married life feels good too. It's not really different from the way things were before, except now we get things in the mail that say "Erin Mountain" and I have to train myself to refer to her as my wife and not my girlfriend. Our apartment is awesome, and I'll probably put some pictures on here pretty soon. We got a lot of new stuff, namely an awesome new entertainment center. I've bought a lot of cool stuff since we've moved too. Again, pictures later.

I need to be working so I guess that's it for now.

And then there was one

2007-07-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

So I just deleted my game development blog. I sort of didn't want to, but I just never, ever posted in it. Sort of like I never, ever post on this one. Only my game dev blog probably had at least 50% more non-posting. So from now on I'll just put everything here.

While I'm typing this I'll go ahead and mention that the company that might publish my game has now received a playable build from me and is getting ready to do a code review. After that I suppose I'll find out if they're interested in publishing it. I should also hear something about getting a job there next week, and will probably be driving down for an interview. To be honest I am more excited about getting a job than getting my game published at this point, but both would be nice. If I get hired it will probably be short-lived because my head is going to explode as soon as I come to the realization that I actually work in the game industry.

Slick.

2007-07-07T02:41:00.000-05:00

My last.fm thing on the sidebar is different now. They made a new widget just for Blogger. I like it alot.

Infomercials and Root Beer

2007-07-07T02:26:00.000-05:00

I'm so tired. I recently uploaded my game to Erin's phone only to find it runs nothing like it did on the emulator for her phone. Instead, it runs like complete crap. Everyday since has been one marathon optimizing session after another. Now I have whole host of new bugs to fix and I really need to have a demo version of the game ready to show the company I'm talking to by Monday morning.

At this point I just want to go to sleep, but I'm not going to let myself until either a.) all the bugs are fixed or b.) I doze off right here at the computer.

Wow.

2007-06-28T04:09:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened since I've neglected to update my blog in the last month. And I do mean a lot.

Erin's parents bought her a really nice digital camera, which arrived today. I messed around with it earlier and will no doubt be using it to take a ton of pictures in the future, most of which will probably end up on here.

We now own an HDTV. It's a 30-inch Samsung Slimfit CRT. And it's nice. As if I needed another reason to pretty much ignore my Wii. Metroid should change that, though.

And lastly, the big one, I am in talks to have my game published as I type this. The company has looked over a presentation and some videos I provided them and now want a playable build of the game which I'll probably deliver on Friday. And there's not just that...they also offered me a job. A real, honest-to-god industry job. I'm still pretty much in disbelief. The company is in Raleigh, NC, which seems like a pretty good place to live. I mean, I've been planning this all along, but now that it's actually happening it all seems so fast. I emailed the their creative director back and told him I'd love to have a job, so I imagine next I'm going to be invited down there to meet with them and discuss specifics. Even now it just hasn't hit me. I guess I'll probably be going to the Game Developer's Conference next year...something else that is simply hard to believe. And to top it all off, after doing some more research on the company I just found out that Bernie Stolar works there. Bernie, Father of the Dreamcast, "There is no more Tekken," Stolar. Unbelievable. I'm trying not to get too excited until everything is a done deal, but that fact that I'm still up at 5:30 in the morning writing this should pretty much say how I feel.

If you're just focused, hard-working, and determined you've already beaten out 90% of the other people who won't even try to accomplish something simply because they believe they can't. Odds are you'll succeed. This is SO awesome.

2 Weeks

2007-05-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

Time to figure out what Crunch Time is really like.

My blog sucks.

2007-05-16T04:52:00.000-05:00

I think I am going to develop insomnia. That's the only way I'll be able to complete everything I want to get done each day.

Now Playing 04/23/07

2007-04-23T03:59:00.001-05:00

2007-04-13T06:28:00.000-05:00

Only 30 minutes left. I worked 12-8 last night and I'm ready to go home and pass out. I'm off Friday and Saturday and dont have to come back until midnight Sunday night...that is if we didn't have a meeting at 4:00 today. Its for all of the Front Desk people...all 4 of us. I desperately need to get tires on my car and was going to do so today, but now I don't know. I'm going to have to sleep before I do anything, and by the time I wake up I won't have enough time to go do and still be back here by 4, so said meeting really screws up everything. It probably won't even be about anything they haven't already told us anyway.

I have had horrible heartburn all night long. I get it bad everytime I make tacos for dinner. It's wierd because eating, say, Taco Bell doesn't give me heartburn any worse than most other stuff, but when we buy everything and I make it myself I'm always miserable that night. So no more of that...

I saw Grindhouse with Will last Saturday. I really, really liked it (as shown in my previous title), and it's pretty aggrivating to see tanking at the box office. Death Proof might have had the best car chase I have ever seen. Thinking back on the movie I can't think of one thing I didn't like about it. I'd love to see it again in theaters but I probably won't be able to, especially since it's not making enough money. Now I just hope for a DVD release where I can watch both films and the extras the way they were presented in the theater.

Erin has the next 10 days off of work, most of them paid. It's going to be vacation of sorts for her...she's pretty fed up with her job and really needs some time away from it. It sucks that we won't really have any money to do much, but I have to work anyhow. Still, it will be awesome just to have her at home all the time for almost 2 weeks.

My replacement is here...gotta wrap this up.

"Give him the gun. Give him ALL the guns!"

2007-04-09T22:00:00.000-05:00

I'm at work. I've got about an hour left. Mondays always suck...I usually work from midnight until 8am Sunday night/Monday morning, go home and try to sleep some, then get up and come right back in from 4-12. I figured I'd make a new post on here to kill some time. I've just been sitting here in the office browsing gamedev sites and eating Red Hots (I have no idea who's they are) for the last hour or so. It hasn't been a busy day. I've thought alot about my game (Color Bind) today and how I haven't been working on it as much as I should. I plan on changing that this week. Its hard to work 40 hours a week, spend time with your friends and girlfriend, do the mundane, day-to-day tasks that need to be done, have a little fun time (read: PSU) and then try to make a game too. It's a shitty excuse. If I truly wanted to finish it I'd make time somehow. And it's not that I don't want to...rather I just need to get my priorities in order. Which I will. This whole ordeal is like one big test for me and my horrible procastination.

Bah, I have to take a rollaway bed up to someone's room.

"Xbox is betta"

2007-03-17T06:24:00.000-05:00

I turned 24 on Monday. It's been almost a week ago and I'm just now posting about it. I'm still getting used to the whole 3rd shift thing plus they're working me 2nd shift (4-12) one or two days a week as well. I haven't really bothered with my blog between working, trying to get into some kind of sleep pattern...and the fact that I got AN XBOX 360 FOR MY BIRTHDAY WHOOO!

Erin helped me get it and also bought me Phantasy Star Universe. We ordered it from Amazon (no tax!) and Will came over the day it was to arrive and waited for it with me. He also let me borrow Dead Rising. I've had the 360 about a week and a half now and have also bought the TMNT arcade game. Erin likes it way more than I thought she would and bought Uno and Viva Pinata. We're both completely addicted to achievements. Even as a die-hard N-fan, right now I'm enjoying the 360 more than my Wii. Although once some of the higher-profile Wii games finally come out (see previous post) and Nintendo finally gets some games online that may not be the case.

yawn

2007-03-09T04:47:00.000-05:00

I'm at work. Its my first night working the front desk from 12-8. I'm sleepy--I only got about 4 hours of sleep before I came in. It's not very hard. I have alot of paperwork to do for the first 2 hours, then I can pretty much do whatever until around 5 when I need to start making breakfast. I brought my DS but I haven't played it; I've mainly just been surfing the web. It's not bad, but I'd rather be at home in bed with Erin. Speaking of Erin she's going to Chattanooga for the weekend to see her family, but I have to work so I'll be staying here. It sucks because she really doesn't want to go by herself.

I have more to write about, but I'll do that later. In the future I'll probably be posting on this thing alot at night like this, for lack of anything better to do.

:(

2007-03-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

*sigh*

April 9th

2007-03-07T06:59:00.001-05:00

Hell yes.

Machine Head - The Blackening

2007-03-07T06:06:00.000-05:00

I don't think it even matters what else comes out this year, as far as my favorite album of 2007 goes. I have absolutely wore this CD out listening to it at work. A metal masterpiece.

Test Pics

2007-03-06T18:57:00.000-05:00

So the testing session was really cool. It reminded me of how long it has been since I've been to a race (March 2005). Like every time I forget to wear sunscreen to the racetrack the sun reflected off of the aluminum bleachers up into my face and burnt me to a crisp. Blaney was pretty slow all day, I think they're playing catchup with the COT after having to build so many of the current cars because of the switch over to Toyota. While I was there I got free tickets to the Busch Series race in a few weeks which is awesome. I took my Grandfather's scanner to listen to the drivers, so that was probably the coolest thing of all because after Blaney went out on the track and his car looked like crap, I immediately knew why it looked like crap because the crew discussed it over the radio. I also heard Blaney say "fucking" for the first time which was really wierd. In all it was alot of fun and I'm glad I went. I took some pictures as well:

"It looks shit."

2007-02-27T18:04:00.000-05:00

I'm going to the NASCAR "Car of Tomorrow" test session in Bristol with Jeremy and Ryan tomorrow. Should be cool. I may try to take some pictures with the incredibly gimped camera on Erin's PDA. 2 races in, this season has been equal parts encouraging and frustrating. Encouraging because the team has without a doubt stepped up their performance by leaps and bounds over last year. Frustrating because the finishes thus far don't reflect that.

I don't think I've posted it before but I'm working my 68th job now as the "maintenance guy" at the Ramada Limited in Johnson City. Sometimes it's cool but lately it sucks because we're replacing all the mattresses in the hotel. Most of the time its pretty laid back though. The pay sucks but the hours aren't too bad. Hopefully I can actually stick it out here until my game is finished.

Speaking of the game I'll probably have more to post on it in my gaming blog pretty soon. I haven't had much time to work on it lately. I'm still tweaking the title screen and menus. I should have a pretty final version to send to most of my friends here soon.

Erin got me new shoes! They're awesome. Erin is awesome. Have a look:

That's about it for right now...

Now Playing 02/13/07

2007-02-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

New computer setup!!! Pt. 2

2007-02-12T21:04:00.000-05:00

Finally, pictures of our new desk. I took them with Erin's PDA so the quality isn't that great. We really need a digital camera.

I can't feel my fingers type this.

2007-02-06T18:17:00.000-05:00

I was at Hardee's with Erin earlier today eating one of their new chili cheese cheeseburgers when suddenly the Miami Vice theme started playing via the ceiling speakers. I had already mentioned how great my burger was when this happened, so it pretty much put the final touch on what was an excellent dining experience. In closing, all restaurants should consider playing the Miami Vice theme in their dining areas.

New computer setup!!!

2007-01-29T13:44:00.000-05:00

So Erin recently bought a new computer desk to go along with our new chair. And I must say, it is awesome. It also looks even bigger than it already is crammed into our tiny apartment. Pics forthcoming...

Blame it on the comfortable new chair

2007-01-16T19:43:00.000-05:00

Not much going on here, but there is in my game development blog, since working on Color Bind is about all I do anymore.

Now Playing 01/11/07

2007-01-11T17:38:00.000-05:00

No more medicine balls.

2007-01-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Erin got us an ultra-comfortable new computer chair yesterday. It's one of those chairs with the mesh backs on them. We should also be getting an extremely nice new desk as well in a few weeks, so I'll take some pictures of the new computer setup then. That along with the new kitchen shelf and island Erin got for Christmas, the TV stand and media shelf I bought and the futon her Mom brought last week has the living room and kitchen here being more cozy and practical than it has ever been. As nice as it is, it's still just a temporary solution to a problem that can only be solved by one thing: more space.

Thanks to this awesome new computer chair I've been working on my game alot more the past few days, which will lead to a new development blog post either today or tomorrow, probably with screenshots of the latest build.

Now Playing 01/04/07: Portable Edition

2007-01-04T18:19:00.000-05:00

Titles are hard because I feel like they not only have to be relevant but also clever in some way, which they're usually not.

2006-12-05T12:28:00.000-05:00

I've been sick, my leg has gotten better, I got a Wii (at launch), and Erin is the most awesome girlfriend ever. And now I have to go to work.

WARNING -- Graphic Images

2006-11-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I hurt my leg pretty bad yesterday. I was a moron and locked the car keys (and thus, the house key) in here when I was carrying out stuff to go do laundry. Luckily there was a window that is unlocked. Inside, underneath the window is my crappy 19-inch television on a glass-top coffee table. So I stacked up some cinder blocks and climed through, then slid the tv over while balancing in the window on my stomach. I then climbed down into the coffee table very awkwardly, and the way my knee was on it caused it to shatter. The result: I looked down to find a piece of glass wedged between the coffe table and my knee, the sharp end embedded about in inch deep. I was able to raise myself up and it fell out, but the damage was done. I had 2 other puncture wounds around the pain stab wound, so i guess a few other pieces got me before I looked down. but just didnt stick.

So I ran into the bathroom freaking out and wondering how bad it was, trying to hold my short's leg up as not to get blood stains all over them. I sat on the toilet and had a close look at it, which immediately brought back memories of slicing my inner top lip open on one of my teeth while goofing off at my and Jesse's old apartment. That was probably the worst I have ever hurt myself and the only time I required immediate medical attention. Much like that would, I looked into this one and saw stuff like the second layer of skin (dermis) and fat tissue. Stuff you're not really ever supposed to see. This was possible because the wound wasn't gushing blood, which was relieving. The first thing that came to mind after looking at this hole in my leg was, "Oh fuck, I might need stitches." I currently have no form of medical insurance which means said stitches would have to come directly out of my pocket. The second thing I thought to myself was, "I can't get stitches. The Wii comes out in a week and a half and I won't be able to afford it!". This reminded me of issue #38 of Next-Generation (R.I.P.) magazine that had a cover story entitled, "you're not a hardcore gamer unless..." In it was a list comprised of thing that would make you a hardcore gamer, and you would check off the ones you had actually done at some point. There was also a part where they let people write in about their own hardcore gamer moments. For a moment I wished I had a time machine so I could go back to 1998 and write in about the time "I wouldn't get stitches in a serious stab wound for fear that I wouldnt be able to buy the new Nintendo system coming out the next week." I calmed down, cleaned the stab wound up a bit, and because I apparently wasn't thinking atright enough at the time to remember that Erin has a first-aid kit, I folded up a paper towel and duck taped it to my bleeding leg. The odd thing was that there really had been no pain. I'm pretty sure I wasnt in shock or anything. I could walk on it fine, which meant I hadn't hit any muscle tissue. I so I headed back outside to go do laundry, and stop at a drug store to buy some stuff to fix myself up more properly. On the way Erin called from work. I explained to her what had happened and she really didnt want me to do laundry and thought I just wait at home until it was time to get pick her up. She was pretty freaked out by the whole thing, and still is really.

So I came back home, took pictures to post on here (see below) and put neosporin and an actual bandage on it. After I picked up Erin from work later, I also got some Hydrogen Peroxide to help disinfect it. Which is basiclly hat i did this morning. Poured more Peroxide over it, more neosporin and anorher bandage. It still doesnt hurt, unless I bend my leg too much, which stretched the cut. I think it helps that my leg was bent when I got stabbed, so when I straighten it it helps close it up. It's still bleeding some into the bandage I have on now, but I think that's mostly due to the fact that the glass was about 1/8 inch thick, so the wound is open wider, as opposed to getting stabbed with a knife. I'm pretty sure as long as I can keep it from getting infected, it'll heal up fine. Here are the pictures I took:

The murder weapon.

Despite this I'm in a great mood today. My parents bought me a car! It's a 1992 Buick Regal. I've only seen pictures so far, but I think I'll be able to go pick it up Friday after I get tags and insurance for it. So I'll FINALLY be mobile again. Also, to offset those disturbing images of both my stab wound and my pale white legs, here is an image of an adorable kitty cat:

Excite-James

2006-11-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

Argh...I still haven't had time to make much of an update. I work at Wal-Mart now, and have for about the last month. It's not as horrible as I thought it would be so I'll likely be there at least until my game is done. I'm still working on it, although it's been tough trying to work on it while having a real job too. It's taken twice as long as I thought it would to complete it, but I will finish it. It's just in too much of an advanced stage not to. I'm mainly hammering out aesthetics and the UI as well as figuring out how to adapt it to different handsets. I'll post some screens here in the next few days and I'm going to try to update my development blog soon as well.

So I was off yesterday and today. I got my driver's license back last week, finally. I had lost it for some dumb stuff like forgetting to pay a traffic ticket... I don't have my own car though, so Erin and I have had to find creative ways for both of us to get to work and back home which sometimes results in my having to hang out at Wal-Mart for a few hours after I get off. Sometimes my parents will come give me a ride, which helps. Yesterday I took Erin to work, hung out with Wes some, went back to have lunch with Erin and then met up with Will to see Borat (WHICH WAS GREAT SUCCESS!). Today after taking to Erin to work I've just been working on the game some more and cleaning the house a bit. After typing this I have to go do laundry and pick up Erin at 7.

I noticed earlier that I've felt pretty "blah" for awhile recently. Like I'm just kind of going in slow-motion, and its its been hard to muster the energy to do much. It sucks and I've tried to break myself out of it today by forcing myself out of this chair to clean up the kitchen and vacuum. Maybe it's the cold weather?

The Wii comes out in les than 2 weeks! I'm off that Saturday night and current plans are to line up at Wal-Mart early in the day and wait until midnight. I don't know who all will be there, but Garrett wil probably come, and Matt said he would. I think Jesse will be there too, and Will and Jeremy, while not buying Wiis that day, said they would come by and hang out too, so it should be pretty awesome. I wanted to get alot more stuff initially, but in light of the presents I want to buy for Christmas I'm just going to get the system, another controller and Excite Truck. To say that I am excited would be an understatement.

So, yeah...anyway

2006-10-30T01:40:00.000-05:00

Wow, I've been ignoring this thing again. I don't know why, I like it. Hell, it's my homepage. I'm too tired to really type much tonight, but I might try an actual update tomorrow. On this and my game development blog. I feel pretty guilty when I look at the date on the previous entry... I'll work on adding some new pictures to my banner too.

Hot. Gay. Cat Sex.

2006-08-02T15:05:00.000-05:00

So we got a new cat Monday. I've had Tank over a year, and for about that long have been trying to find a cat for Erin, which would give Tank someone to hang out with when we weren't around. The first cat we got was Tabé, an all-white female cat. Well, Tabé used the bathroom everywhere but the litterbox, and absolutely could not be convinced to do otherwise, so we had to get rid of her. The second cat, Spencer, came from the animal shelter. He was pretty cool. He was really hyper and got into a lot of stuff, ate more than Tank who was twice his size, and he wasn't very affectionate. And he liked to try and get outside. One day after escaping, he decided not to come back in. We tried several times, but he wouldn't let us catch him. I thought maybe he was an outside cat before we got him, because apparently he likes it alot more out there. This family a few apartments down puts food out for him and we stil see him out there alot, but he's not really "our" cat anymore. He won't even let you pick him up.

Monday when Erin was at work her friend brought a cat she had that she needed to give away because they had just found out her cousin or nephew or something was alergic to cats. Something like that. Anyway, so Erin agreed to take him. He is HUGE. Maybe the biggest cat I've seen with my own eyes. Erin has named him Monte. Despite being big and fearsome, he's really just a big baby...very social and very affectionate. Tank has a history of hating every cat we've brought home for at least the first week and this one is no different. Tank has stayed hidden away more or less and hisses any time Monte gets near him. I don't think Monte really minds Tank, as he lived with another cat before we got him. My cat is just wierd I guess. I'm pretty sure after a week or so he'll be cool with it and they'll be buddies. Hell, Tank and Spencer eventually ended up making lots of hot, gay cat sex. Ask Will.

BTW

2006-07-27T11:11:00.000-05:00

Erin and I ended up going back to Toys R Us yesterday and getting the last 3-month XBL kit that was on clearance. So I have my own gamertag now: DigitalA1chemy.

Microsoft hates money

2006-07-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

Following up on my previous (and boring, probably, to most people) post, Darrell Waltrip did okay in the Busch race. He started 37th and despite a record number of caution periods he raced his way into the top 20 before some dumbass ran all over him. He had a good showing though, so I was happy.

I had a really good weekend. Friday Erin was off so we went out and saw Monster House, which was pretty good. We also went by the mall and to O'Charley's to eat where I had the most delicious steak I've had since...well probably the last time I went to O'Charley's. I'm not sure what they do to make their steaks so good, and maybe I don't really want to know, but whatever it is I hope they keep doing it.

Saturday Wes came by and let me know he was trying to get enough people together to do a Halo 2 LAN. He came back later that night to pick me up, and I even got Erin to come along too. We had 8 people in all, until Garrett left and we had 7 for the rest of the night, which was pretty good. Erin, who really hasn't played the game very much at all and never competatively, even won a few rounds of Fiesta Survivor including an overall match, so that was pretty awesome. Wes's brother mostly kicked everyone's ass, like he usually does.

Afterwards Erin, Wes and I all went to Perkins to grab something to eat, at about 3 in the morning. I completely forgot it was Saturday night and when we got there the placed was absolutely packed-- mostly with drunk people. I think I remember one guy dancing and/or singing, and at one point we thought there was a fight going on outside. At Perkins.

Then yesterday, still fresh off of the LAN party Erin decided she wanted to play Halo 2 some more so that she could get better before we have the next LAN party. So we went out and got a used Xbox, and extra controller, Halo 2, and Crimson Skies. Since it was used, the guy that owned it before us already had Xbox Live installed. So we tried to make a new XBL account using the aptly named "New Account" option. Everything went smoothly until we got to a section that asked for a "subscription code." Simply having a credit card and a willingness to give that information to Microsoft in exchange for something they have, you want, and that they can deviler digitally does not make you good enough for an XBL account. No, you have to go out to a retail store and purchase a "subscription card" (which I thought was just for people who didn't have a CC) in either a 3 or 12 month form. What happenes when your 3 or 12 month subscription runs out? They charge your credit card. They just won't do it intially, so you still need to have one despite buying a stupid subscription card. And it can't be an Xbox 360 sub. card either, those are different. The stores nearby are out of subscription cards? Well too bad, you can't get online. And most places around here ARE out of orginal Xbox Live subscription cards. EB has some 12-month ones for $50 and Best Buy had a 12-month Starter Kit (comes with a headset) for $70, but after buying all the other stuff I mentioned, Erin wasn't about to dish out that much more money...she wanted to buy this month, this month. And next month's, next month. Luckily, Toys R Us was having a nationwide clearance on a bunch of game-related items, one being a 3-momth XBL Starter Kit w/ headset for $9.98. I didn't think they'd have any left since it started on 07/11, but Erin stopped by on the way home from work yesterday, and sure enough, they had a bunch left.

So...I'm on Xbox Live now. Me and Erin are currently sharing an account, and since she's paying for it she chose the gamertag, which is "GoatS1ayer" (incase you can't tell the "l" in the name is actually the number "1"). So if you read this, feel free to send me a friend invite if you want. When I get some money I suppose I'll make my own seperate account and she'll keep this one.

That's pretty much it. I'm back to work on my game, which STILL isn't quite to alpha yet. Everything involved in the development is so unpredictable since I've never been through the process before, so I'm sucking ass at giving aproximations of milestones. But that's something for my developer blog.

"I hope he chokes on that $250,000."

2006-07-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

This week's NASCAR Busch Series race starts in about an hour, at 3:30. I've been up since 11:30 or so, when Erin left for work. I figured I would work on the game some until the race came on, but I've been unable to. I'm a huge NASCAR fan. Well, let me rephrase that. I'm a huge fan of my favorite NASCAR drivers. I grew up watching and liking Darrell Waltrip. Ironically, I never got to see him when he was truly great, instead cheering him on during the lackluster last years of his career. Actually, the race in which I decided I liked him was probably his finest moment--the 1989 Daytona 500. It was all downhill from there. Towards the end of his career I latched on to ex-World of Outlaw turned NASCAR Busch Series regular, Dave Blaney. As it turned out, his first year in (what used to be) the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 2000 was Waltrip's last. That provided a pretty great experience throughout the entire season. Waltrip pretty much sucked as he had throughout the previous 5 or so seasons (due to, in my opinion, the driving mentality of an older driver and poor equipment...mostly the latter), and Blaney went thought he usualy rookie growing pains, but did manage to notch a few top 10s nefore the year was up, while Waltrip grabbed the pole at arguably the second biggest event of the year, the Brickyard 400. When the 2000 season was over Waltrip retired and I've been cheering for Blaney ever since.

Waltrip has since raced in a few NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races since his "retirement," but I've somehow managed to miss all of them, inlcuding what was to be his last NASCAR race ever, his "One and Done" race at Martinsville last year. So that sucks pretty bad. However, earlier this year, out of nowhere, Michael Waltrip and Aaron's announced that DW was going to race in this year's Busch race at Martinsville this year, the first time that series has been there since 1995. Even though since the announcement DW has said he wouldn't rule out racing a few more races here and there as long as he feels he can "still get it done," I really have a feeling this will be it for him. And I get to watch it this time. I orginally thought Blaney was going to race in this race as well, but as it turns out the Busch car he usually drives is going to be in the race, but with a different driver. Raguardless, I'm still really, REALLY excited. So excited that I can't really pull myself to do anything productive at all. I've just been scowering the internet for any interviews with Waltrip from this week, looing for practice times, and glancing at the clock about every 5 minutes. That might sound silly, but like I said, I'm a huge fan of my drivers. Huge.

I think DW can win today, but I don't think he will. Call it the James Mountain curse, if you will. DW and Dave are both incredible drivers, but always seem to have some pretty crappy luck any time they have a good car, which I attribute to myself for some reason. Waltrip said earlier in the week the car raced really well, but wouldn't be all that great in qualifying. In the Busch Series you've got to practice, then you qualify. There's no practice after qualifying. Since the #99 car he's driving is locked into the field via owner's points, he said they would focus on the race setup during practice. It's showed, as in both practices he was in the middle of the field. If they're doing what he said, thats actually pretty good, as most of the cars ahead of him we're probably practicing with much faster qualifying setups. However, qualifying itself has be pretty worried. Waltrip only ran the 41st quickest lap. Qualifying has never really been his strong point, and I still think the car will be reasonably good during the race. If this was a 500 mile race I would feel a little bit better, but it's not, its only 250 laps and track position means alot. Personally I think they should have put more effort into qualifying the car. I just have this sinking feeling that being mired back in the field like that is going to see him involved in some kind of incident before the race is over.

One thing is sure, DW thinks he's still got what it takes. The car he's in has run well everywhere it's been. The track is one of his best. If he doesnt run strong today...then he doesn't. Personally, I don't care. It's not like he has anything left to prove. I'm just glad I get to see what is likely to be his final race.

That is all.

2006-07-20T11:03:00.000-05:00

My game development blog is alive again.

Don't fuck with electricity.

2006-07-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

Took this picture while in the drive-thru with Erin at Chick-Fil-A yesterday:

It appears to be some kind of creature made entirely out of electricity that has manifested itself, and is killing someone. Electricity looks pissed. My theory is it has finally gotten tired of its slave-like treatment and wants equal rights. Or it could just be a mindless killing machine.

Vikings are cool.

2006-06-28T02:36:00.000-05:00

I seem to be striking gold with alot of the music I've been downloading lately. Amon Amarth's Versus the World might be the best album I have ever heard. Its just sounds epic:

Something else added to my "When I actually have money" list.

Cruising the Information Superhighway

2006-06-26T04:01:00.000-05:00

Its been very loney in the land of the internet tonight... I deleted that last post since the whole googlebombing thing never worked out. And because it was annoying.

Stuff.

2006-05-26T01:39:00.000-05:00

I'm sick. I don't know what with...a cold I guess. It sucks, of course. I watched TNA iMPACT! for the first time in a few weeks tonight, it was a really good show. Qualifying for both the Busch and the Nextel Cup races at Charlotte (I refuse to call it "Lowe's" Motor Speedway) this weekend was on, so I watched that too. Dave Blaney recently signed a deal with Busch team that will see him running no less than 5 races in that series the rest of this year. He practiced well in that car today and then qualified 14th for the Busch race. I wish his Nextel Cup car was running that well...

I download too much music. I can't wait until I have money so I can go buy all this stuff and free up some hardrive space. I downloaded KMFDM's and the Stone Temple Pilots' discography today. Erin has a 3-day weekend coming up (Saturday, Sunday, Monday). I think that is awesome. Work on my game is progressing great. It's still really hard. Probably not as hard as I make it out to be...I think its just that I sort of stopped using my brain to think critically for awhile and now its lazy. It likes sitting back and taking information in, it just doesnt like having to figure shit out. I'm trying to update my development blog more regularly now. I'm playing through Killer 7 again (thanks Wes). I'm also in the process of trying to get 100% completion on New Super Mario Bros. on DS (thanks Erin). I'm finding myself beating more games lately, something that, for awhile, was a real rarity. Not sure why. Just recently I've beaten Metal Gear Solid: the Twin Snakes, Gunstar Super Heroes, I've practically beaten NSMB, and I'll be finishing Killer 7 (8, actually) and P.N.03 (again--special ending I just found out about) pretty soon.

E3 came and went. I guess Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) was my game of the show. Other really cool stuff (for me) included Yoshi's Island 2 (DS) (though I later found out its not being internally developed =\), Hotel Dusk (DS), Lost Planet (360), Super Paper Mario (GC), Excite Truck (Wii), and probably lots of other stuff that I can't remember. Non-gameplay trailers don't count =P. I guess PSU was there too, but no one really covered because its been there the past 2 years and is now getting ready to come out. October is the US date I'm hearing. I guess that it. It's almost 3. I'm going to try and work on my game some more and then get some sleep.

Making games is hard.

2006-05-20T12:17:00.000-05:00

See title.

Birthday stuff

2006-05-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

Erin's birthday was on the 2nd of May. I didnt have alot of money, but was still able to get her some cool stuff. Basiclly how it went down was on her day off we went out and I just let her pick out stuff she wanted until I was out money. So, Erin's birthday haul from me included: a Princess Bride shirt, Brain Age (DS), The Truman show on DVD, 3 books, and the new Sims 2 expansion. I also suprised her with a dozen roses. I think she was happy, even though I really wanted to get her something more lavish. That's my fault. Next year...

365 days ago...

2006-05-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

April 18th marked Erin and my 1 year anniversary since we started dating. We celebrated by going to Gatlinburg on Sunday night (April 16th) and staying until Tuesday (April 18th). We got a room with a jacuzzi, king size bed, and a fireplace (which wasnt alot of help in April). We did all kinds of fun stuff, but instead of writing about it I'll just post all the pictures I took with Erin's camera phone while we there...

The bed in our room...

...yes, thats a mirror on the ceiling.

The jacuzzi.

Fireplace...

The Sydney James Mountain Lodge, where we stayed. Yes, it is named after me.

The aquarium was far and away the coolest thing there. For some reason there were baby hammerhead sharks in the stingray pool. WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO REACH IN THE WATER AND TOUCH THE STINGRAYS.

Pic of said pool.

This thing was bigger than it looks in this photo.

Fish.

Lots of fish.

Not so many fish.

Coolest part of the aquarium...

Surely they eat some of the smaller fish? They're sharks...

I was supposed to look distressed here but forgot.

Coolest fish there. The "Sea Dragon". I want one.

The Alamo Steakhouse, where we ate the second night. It was AWESOME. Also, coolest slogan ever: "So next time you dine out, Remember the Alamo." I will. I will...

Picture is kind of fuzzy, but the menu reads, "So good, we simply call it...THE STEAK." This, plus the kickass slogan, plus the fact that they serve Barq's Rootbeer made this place the coolest steakhouse ever, in my opinion. I actually had the 9slightly) cheaper New York strip steak.

For breakfast the last day, we went here. Best. Pancakes. Ever.

After checking out and eating breakfast on Tuesday we drove through the "Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail," which is basiclly just a 6-mile one-way drive through the mountains, and some really nice scenery. Took alot of pictures here; this one at an overlook.

Some pictures turned out blurry for some reason...this one is a working water-flume thing that still works. It was used back in the early 1900's to transport water into a nearby house for actual running water inside.

Better picture...

There were 3-4 house on the trail built by the first people to move into the area. These people were very, VERY short.

A guide said this was called "Thousand Drips Falls." They were not lying about the "drips" part.

After the motor trail thing we hung out in Pigeon Forge a little before driving back home. This is "Lost Treasure Golf" where we played mini-golf.

We did alot of other things I didnt take pictures of. We went to the Guiness World of Records Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, Ripley's Haunted Adventure (which rocks!), to one of those Build-a-Bear places where Erin made a bear that I bought her (and where she later let me make one...a Panda in a karate gi), and we also had an old-time photo made. The best part though was not having anything to worry about for almost 3 days and getting to spend lots of time with Erin. Awesome trip.

Procrastination Station

2006-05-12T18:54:00.000-05:00

So this is my first post in awhile. Between now and the last time I posted I've probably had 20 or more ideas, but for some reason or another I never went through with any of them. I still have a bunch of posts that I've meant to make for awhile in the back of my mind, so I'm going to try to start catching up now...

Days of Thunder

2006-04-12T18:07:00.000-05:00

NOTE: I may, or may not have greatly exagerated various parts of the follwing post...

I worked 10:30-4 today. At one point during the day a guy came in and told me that an older man in a maroon van outside wanted someone to bring him one of the motorized carts we have. I walked over to the only one left and turned the handle (it kind of works like a motorcycle) to try and move it forward. I had never actually touched one of these carts before so I fliped some swtiches and turned more handles for another minute or so before going to get help. I told Sarah, one of the managers, that I was trying to walk the cart outside to take to an elderly gentleman who needed it, and demonstrated that I couldnt get it to move. The laughed, flipped some switch with a light on it, and said that it was weight sensative and that I had to ride it out. Like I said previously, I was going to walk it out, as being an able-bodied guy I would feel really wierd riding it around. Sure enough, I sat down, the light on the switch turned greed, and with a flick of my wrist I thrust foward a few inches.

I put my feet up and began making my way out of the store. The cart doesn't go very fast, but it is a pretty smooth ride. I also noticed that the seat was unusually comfortable. As I headed out into the entranceway I noticed an old man back and to my left also coming outside atop the only other motorized cart we have. I drove my cart out to the sidewalk and had to stop and wait for traffic to pass. While I was waiting, the old man in the other cart pulled up right beside me. Now I felt really wierd. I looked over and nodded the old man, but he just kind of looked at me. It was at this time the cars had passed and I accelerated foward to cross the road diagonally and into the parking lot. The old man began to accelerate a split second after I did, still more or less beside me. It is at this time that I should point out that these things are VERY slow. I could have walked across the road faster. With my pants around my ankles.

As I crossed the road I was still thinking of how I nodded politely at the old man and smiled, and how he didnt acknowledge me at all. And how he pulled right up beside me instead of behind me... About his time I notice the old man is gaining on me. Now, I hadn't orginally intended to race him, but by this time instinct had kicked in.

I steered my cart left, tightening up on the old man to hopefully discourage him from continuing to gain on my inside. He kept coming until he was almost even with me, and eventually nosed ahead. It was apparent that the old man was packing more horsepower than I, and wasn't afraid to use it. I closed the gap between us even more but the old man still never let off the throttle. And with his apprent performance advantage, why should he? If I didn't act fast he was going to complete the pass. At about two-thirds of the way across the road there was a turn coming up. We would both need to round a curb set up to separate the road from the parking lot. It was time to see how my cart would handle.

The old man had about a half foot advantage on me as we approached the turn. About a foot and a half separated our machines and the old man seemed setup to take the apex of the corner perfectly. At an age of at least 80 I'm sure he's been racing these motorized carts for awhile now and it certainly showed. It was to be the classic scenario of the rookie and the veteran. My only chance was to take away his line. Utilizing a technique taught to me by my Father at Motor World during the summer of '98, I pulled over even closer--about a foot off of him. As we appraoched the corner at full speed it was clear he wouldn't have room to navigate between my cart and the curb at an optimum angle.At the last second I pulled high to give him the proper room, but too late to corner properly. I glanced quickly back and to my left
to notice that my manuever was going to allow me to clear the old man's machine! I turned hard left and took a late apex against the curb and left him in my dust. I had won!

Arriving at my destination a few seconds later I relinquished it to the other old man. "That's good, that's good," he told me. Good alright. Damn good. I hopped off and walked back to work a champion.

"Upgwade!"

2006-04-10T13:35:00.000-05:00

I know I just posted an image of some new wallpaper I found, but while adventuring the internets yesterday I found out that XP is customizable moreso than I actually thought (albeit with the help of certain programs). So, after much tinkering, I got XP to look pretty much indentical to the upcoming Windows Vista. Then I deleted all the icons on my desktop and instead added an icon toolbar that rips-off the toolbar you'll find on Macs. After that I discovered Widgets for the first time, which are really fucking cool. I found a couple that let me add a sexy real-time weather monitor as well as a calendar/to-do list. Afer that I found a much cooler Apple-esque skin for Windows Media Player. I'm probably only person who knows anything about computers yet still uses WMP as their default player... I am starting to use Viewpoint Media Player for most movies I download anymore, however. Finally, I ended up finding another Electroplankton wallpaper that I like than the orginal one. Voila!:

Click to see full-size.

Ebayed this as well today...

2006-04-04T18:29:00.000-05:00

Found cool new wallpaper earlier:

I hope I dont lose it.

2006-04-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

I just bid on a GameBoy Micro, on ebay. The auction ends in about 5 hours. I think I'll get outbid, and I'm only willing to pay so much (which is way less than you'll pick one up for anywhere else), but who knows. I'll likely post a glee-filled entry if I get it.

"Yeah, that must be where all the famous people go to do their laundry."

2006-04-03T17:30:00.000-05:00

The waffles were (merely) "good", work still sucks, and I'm off the next 2 days. Now I need to go do laundry. Key word being go. I want to stay and do laundry for once.

""Wow, you're early. ...Really...early."

2006-03-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

I got up at 6:30, got ready, and went to work at 7. I had wrote down that I had to work 7-11 today. And I did in fact work 7-11...pm. Its plainly on the schedule so I dont know why I wrote it down that way. I took the opportunity though to get and cash my first check from Food City and to also buy some delicious waffles. At least, they'd better be...I havent eaten any yet (Actually I got them to make for Erin, but she didnt have enough time to eat anyt this morning before leaving for work). I ended coming home and going back to sleep. I will follow up on this.

Well...I don't eat babies.

2006-03-29T14:07:00.000-05:00

You Are 52% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.
Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

I hate the way diapers smell.

2006-03-27T17:52:00.000-05:00

I've worked about a week at Food City now. I'm pretty sure I hate it. I'm not going to quit or anything...but I hate it. It seems like most of the people I normally work with are either pretty old, or in high school. And nobody is very interesting. I overheard a guy whom I was bagging with today tell the cashier that he liked Chimaira. I told him I did too, and asked him who else he liked in hopes of starting a cool conversation about metal. But, as I'd feared, his responded that he also "really liked Korn, Slipknot, and Mudvayne". I almost feel like the sort of asshole elitists I don't like writing this but...I don't know, I was hoping his taste went a little deeper. Its just that those three bands belong to a group of music that either serves as a gateway to heavier, dare I say "better" music, or means that the person pretty much doesn't dig much deeper than the radio or MTV. I did offer to burn him a CD sometime with a lot of other bands that he might like. The situation reminded me of a conversation Erin and I had in the car one day when I was telling her how hard it was for me to have a meaningful conversation with most people. She basically accredited it to the fact that I was more, for lack of a better term, "hardcore" about the things I take interest in than the average person. And she's probably right. When I was talking to the guy at work (I feel bad I cant remember his name right now), I brought up a bunch of bands and it kind of seemed like his eyes glassed over. He mentioned that he just downloaded everything, and I told him I used bittorrent and mainly did too right now because I've been broke, and out of curiosity asked him what program he used. He was telling me how he used some version of limewire or something, and kind of halfway through mentioned offhand that he "knew it's not like the best, or most advanced program or anything." It was at this point I realized had somehow made him uncomfortable, or he thought I thought I was better than him, or whatever, which was totally not my intention. I achieved similar results on Sunday night trying to talk about NASCAR with some woman cashiers. They were talking with some customer who used to work for Dupont and was wearing a really nice Jeff Gordon jacket. The guy was talking about how many years Dupont had been his sponsor and a woman I worked with remarked that she didn't think he had won in awhile and if he didn't start doing better they might leave him. I interjected that not only was the Dupont/Jeff Gordon deal the current longest running sponsor/driver deal in NASCAR, but Jeff Gordon has a lifetime contract with Hendrick Motorsports that states as long as he drives Dupont will sponsor him. Everyone just kind of looked at me and one woman said, "Ohhhh...okay."

On weekday morning at work, most of the baggers are old men. Most of them are really nice, and seem pretty smart and able. And old. Like 60-70 old. I've wondered why each of them work there. Whether they've botched their retirement, perhaps they don't draw enough money, maybe they just enjoy working with the public, or somewhere in general, or more likely they're going to have to work for the rest of their foreseeable life simply because they need to pay the bills and that's the only way they can. I'd never ask, obviously. It makes me kind of sad when I think about it at times. I mean, of all places to work when you're 65 years old...a bagger at Food City? Its the sort of job you usually think about as the beginning of your career path...not the end. One of the old guy's name is Will. Everyone hates Will. He wanders around aimlessly some of the time, and probably checks the lot a little too often (in reality he's checking the drink machines or the parking lot for change, I think). But overall he's a pretty nice, if not quiet man. He offers to take just about everyone's groceries out for them, and talks to a lot of the kids. The majority of the other people who work on the front end of the store are pretty immature and I've heard different people claim everything from he walks around with his hands in his pockets all day because he's playing with himself to they think he's an old dirty pervert because he's always talking to kids and patting their heads and stuff. At one point today after bagging an elderly couple's order they needed assistance taking their groceries to their car because the woman was in a wheelchair and the husband had to push her out. So I started out with the buggy and Will came up and offered to take it out. Honestly I didn't really feel like going out anyway so I said okay and pushed it to him. Michelle, the girl working the register behind me, yelled really hateful at him that he needed to let me take it because I bagged the whole order. I mean, its hard to convey here how hateful her tone of voice was when she talked to him. He said something like, "yeah, he can take it" or something is his old man voice. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and took the cart on out. When I came back Michelle was standing with the other 2 old man baggers and just spewing all kinds of mean stuff about him. She told me he always tried to do that because he wants to get tips from people and if he tried to do that again to tell him to go the hell away and to do some work, or something like that. I didn't get tipped when I went out. I was under the impression we weren't supposed accept money from people (I might be wrong). I told her I didn't really want to be mean to him, and that if he wanted to take the cart out that bad then he must need the (potential) money more than I do, and that he could take my carts out if he wanted to. From working with him some today I really just think he's an old guy who is old-fashioned, wants to give old-fashioned type service (though most people seem to want to take their own stuff out), and who likes kids. Maybe I don't know him well enough, but right now it makes me mad that everyone gives him such a hard time. Hell, he probably fought in World War II.

I'm off the next 2 days. I get my first check on Thursday which is cool. One positive is that my job is easy. So-easy-monkey-could-do-it easy. Now that I think about it, that's probably not a positive at all. No, it isnt. Maybe if I was making more money it would be.

I'm going to a (Xbox)LAN party Friday night. I'm pretty freakin' excited. There should be a lot of people there. I need a ride though. I was going to try and catch Wes online before Friday and see if maybe I could get a ride with him since he lives nearby. I have to work 12-4 Friday which is early enough to not be a problem, apparently. I hear we will be playing primarily Halo 2 and Unreal Championship 2. If it pans out well and we have another soon, I'd like to try to have enough money to rent 4 copies of TOCA 3. Large-scale multiplayer racing is awesome.

The Food Metropolis

2006-03-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

I work at Food City now. Again. A different one this time. Right now I'm a cashier/bagger, but the store manager told me when he hired me that he needed me to do this until summer came and all the high school kids then needed jobs. Then he would train me to be a front-end manager. Hopefully I wont even be there that long. Food City's first order of business as my new employer has been to steal my weekend from me. I work 2-11 today and 12-9 tomorrow.

My foray into mobile game development is going awesome. After continuing research into the market I've decided to scrap the first project i was working on. I'll likely finish it sometime as a side-thing, but I decided it ultimately wasn't what I wanted to be pitching to publishers as my first game. The game already displays fine on Erin's phone and just needs to have some simple gameplay code implemented to be considered an actual "game".

Erin bought me South Park Season 7 on DVD! It's far and away the best season on DVD, and second only to season 8 in its greatness. I've already watched all but about 2 episodes.

Music Video Time (a.k.a. I <3 YouTube)

2006-03-14T14:20:00.000-05:00

Burden in My Hand -- Soundgarden

Kill the Music -- Everytime I Die

Miasma -- The Black Dahlia Murder

Change (In the House of Flies) -- Deftones

Convalescence -- Darkest Hour

Love -- Strapping Young Lad

Superbeast (Girl on a Motorcycle Mix) -- Rob Zombie

Early morning rambling

2006-03-11T04:18:00.000-05:00

Its pretty late (early?)...its after 4am. I'm sleepy but I dont want to go to sleep. I want to work on my mobile game some more, but I dont have enough time to do enough work to warrant opening everything. Erin and I are supposed to go hiking somewhere tomorrow, weather permitting. So...I really need to get some sleep so I can get up early enough to go do that. My birthday is Sunday (technically tomorrow). Its kind of bizarre because I keep forgetting it. I just remembered for the first time in a few days when I looked at the calender on the computer and saw it read "March 11th" a few minutes ago. So that's cool. Erin gave me my present early; Final Fight Streetwise for PS2. For all the awful press the game is getting, I think its pretty fun. I'm working on beating it a second time. I don't suppose I'll be doing anything special on my birthday...not that I know of anyway. I'll be 23.

With me getting all hyped up about planning a trip tp Tokyo, I rented Lost in Translation the other night. Actually Erin rented it. She doesnt like it, so it was nice of her to let me get it =). I had only saw it once before and thought it was "pretty good." I dont remember why I thought that, because watching it again I think its amazing. I think the first time (which was right after it was released on DVD) I was just expecting a different movie. About the trip to Tokyo, which I haven't mentioned here... I'm working on developing some mobile games at the moment, as documented in my game dev blog. Starting out, I'm going to try to simply sell some finished games to some publishers or carriers. I dont want to talk about it too much, because thats what I made my game development blog for, but I want to use the money I make from my first couple games to take a trip to Tokyo with Erin, Wes and Will. Its just wishful thinking right now, but it gives me an appealing goal. With the state of mobile gaming right now, there is absolutely no reason I cant pull it off. I feel like this is really my chance to "arrive." As it looks now, Wes will be helping me with story, characters and concept, Tim (Trivett) might be doing some music (Wes is going to talk to him), and we'll have to find an art guy. Erin works with a guy who has an art degree from ETSU and wants to work on games and everything. I've got his number... But I'll reserve any more discussion on this for my other blog.

Oh yeah, I got hired at the Food City not far from here. Doing produce. They still have to call me back and I have to go there again before I know when I'll start. This is a good thing, as being broke sucks. However, it should take me 2 months or less to finish my first game, so we'll see how that turns out. I need to go lay down. I'm going to put Lost in Translation in again. To give me something to dream about:

"I'm coming..."

One last thing, I've downloaded alot of music in the past few weeks. One of the albums was by a band called Oceansize:

They're REALLY good. I like the 3rd song on their MySpace profile alot. The first song is from the CD I downloaded. I plan on buying all thier albums. Now, to sleep.

I love you, Erin <3

Chattanooga Pictures

2006-03-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I went to Chatanooga with Erin. Its where her family lives and it was her sister's birthday. The day before we went Erin got a new phone. This new phone of hers is a camera phone so I took the opportunity to take some random pictures during the 2 days we were there. I took the majority of the pictures at this place called "River Park." Its basiclly this big long walkway that stretches for miles down the Tennessee River. We didnt do alot else picture-worthy while we were there.

When we got there the sun was going down, which made for some cool pictures.

Erin and her sister Lyndsey...um...walking.

Going, going...

...gone.

A picture I grabbed of the rare flesh-eating Storkbot. Luckily for me, he was in sleep-mode. There would be no flesh eaten this day...

A picture form this neat little pier that ran under the bridge.

The opposite direction. Erin and Lyndsey at the top...

Carcinogenic catfish > children/unborn babies. Luckily, I knew that fish "rot quickly" and didnt bother catching any before we saw this sign, instead opting for some Indian Gavial I spotted. Take that, cancer.

"Greetings from Chattanooga"

Me pouting at a brand new Carmike theater. I'm pouting because we're about to watch Ultraviolet =(. It was my idea, lol. I meant to take more pictures of this theater, which looked alot like the Emperor's quarter's on the second Death Star.

Just a random picture of the outskirts of the city while we drove around.

I took some pictures of a Target store from the future (a.k.a. FUTURE Target) as well, but thats going to be a different post all together. I think Erin and I are going hiking this weekend if the weather permits, so I'll try to take more pictures.

Act 2

2006-02-22T01:11:00.000-05:00

I've redesigned and relaunched my game development blog. It now focuses on the mobile games I'll be working on.

Sexy Time!

2006-02-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

Erin and I woke up early this morning to go to Sears and pick up her new glasses she ordered last week. I like glasses. They are sexy. Erin in glasses is undisputable proof of this. So, for my own amusement...Sexy Time:

Sneak Preview?

2006-01-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

So Toyota will be entering NASCAR competition in 2007. They're bringing a ton of money and the primary team they'll be backing is none other than Bill Davis Racing, whom Dave Blaney signed for in the offseason. He only signed a 1-year contract so his name isnt on the car pictured, as it isn't anywhere near official yet. However, if dave runs okay this year, this is what his 2007 Toyata Camry should look like:

Good things come to those who wait

2006-01-30T17:12:00.000-05:00

Nintendo has unvieled their DS redesign, which I think was needed to help them compete more with the PSP over here. I think it will only help them put the PSP in second place for good in Japan. One thing is for sure though, it is sexy:

Best Albums This Year

2005-12-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

2005 is almost officially over. With no other CDs I'm looking foward to coming out, I figured now would be as good a time as any to go ahead and point out my favorite albums that came out this year. I'll probably do the same with games and movies later... In no particular order:

IV: Constitution of Treason -- God Forbid

Undoing Ruin -- Darkest Hour

Armed to the Teeth -- Abandoned Pools

Chimaira -- Chimaira

Team Sleep -- Team Sleep

I Like Fruity

2005-12-01T17:21:00.000-05:00

I bought some of this a few night ago. It tastes nothing like I imagined it to, but its still suprisingly good. Highly recommended. If you like fruity.

Updatepalooza

2005-12-01T17:03:00.000-05:00

I got a job at Target, stocking. It's pretty cool, I like it. I need more hours though, so I'm looking for someplace to work in the evenings.

I more or less live at Erin's place anymore. I just don't like it at "the house" anymore. Circumstances have just changed so much since when i first moved in. I would never choose to live there the way it is now. The only good thing about it is Jeremy, and he's not there much either. Options right now are to get my own apartment once I save up some money, or move into another place with Erin (her parents won't like that a bit, lol).

The game Garrett, Wes and myself was going to make seems to have fallen through. I've been looking into flash game development recently. I want to see if its possibly to make a good 2D shooter, as well as a simple version of a puzzle game idea I've had for awhile.

I got the chance to play Guitar Hero (PS2) at Best Buy the other day. It is offcially my most-wanted game (that's out). Best of all, Erin is getting it for me for Christmas! Joygasm!!!

I brought all my Christmas decorations over here the other day. we're going to put up everything tomorrow (Friday). I'm pretty excited.

Trying to breathe some life back into this damn thing...

2005-11-10T20:17:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile (again) since my last real post. I said I would leave an audioblog message afterwards, and I actually tried to while Erin and I were going to Food City, but I guess I messed up somewhere because it never posted *shrug*. I'll give it another go sometime soon becaise it is a very cool idea.

I got another new job, @ Target. I should start Monday. I don't keep count anymore. On the upside I've been learning alot of Windows and Direct X programming lately and should be pretty close to making a couple demo programs. As for the project Garrett, Wes and myself were working on...well I really haven't had a chance to talk to either of them very much the past month or two because I'm not the easiest person to get ahold of =\. Wes has moved away to Virginia now as well. I still want to work on it, and will if we get it rolling again. If not, I'll still update my game dev blog eventually with whatever I'm working on solo.

Erin got a new desktop computer because her laptop crapped out on her. It's pretty fun to play on, and I even got to install and play Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, finally =). I'm gonna post some screencaps for it in a few minutes.

I might be going back to school. I haven't decided yet. Erin is going to help me figure out how much money I could get. It's not so much that I want to go back as it is just a wise think to do. So...we'll see.

I was gonna post more, but Erin just got in from work (I'm at her house, like always lately =P). And she wrote me letter. How sweet <3.

Now Playing: 11/10/05

2005-11-10T20:15:00.000-05:00

Future Technology, WHOAMG!

2005-10-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

I'm posting from Erin's house. During my adventures with the internet I found out that I can make audio posts on here over the phone. But that's not all... This service is free! Isn't that INCREDIBLE?! Well, it seems so at least. Erin gets home from work in about 45 minutes so I'll try it then. Thus, I will forego an actual post because then I won't have anything to say on the telephone.

"For your health."

Very good, but brick not hit back.

Death Race

Overload

What I'm Playing 12/31/2008

Catherine the Great

And another one bites the dust.

What I'm playing 12/12/2008

Moving...

Secret of Nintendo's Success.

Delicious

Everything's Better in Japan

New Office

For real.

Heavens to Betsy

In a rut.

"And here...we...go."

"Look at the size of that whammer!"

An update

What I'm Playing: 06/08/08

Random Stuff

Codemasters owes me a pair of pants.

Round 2

What I'm Playing: 03/14/08

"GET!"

Overload

Why hello there, Wii.

Neato.

25 hours in 2 days.

Same old, same old...

Holy crap...

Christmas comes early!!!

ONLY 4 MORE HOURS, AARRRGH!

Furniture Get

Argh.

Stuff!

What I'm playing: 09/28/07

More to come.

And then there was one

Slick.

Infomercials and Root Beer

Wow.

2 Weeks

My blog sucks.

Now Playing 04/23/07

"Give him the gun. Give him ALL the guns!"

"Xbox is betta"

*yawn*

:(

April 9th

Machine Head - The Blackening

Test Pics

"It looks shit."

Now Playing 02/13/07

New computer setup!!! Pt. 2

I can't feel my fingers type this.

New computer setup!!!

Blame it on the comfortable new chair

Now Playing 01/11/07

No more medicine balls.

Now Playing 01/04/07: Portable Edition

Titles are hard because I feel like they not only have to be relevant but also clever in some way, which they're usually not.

*WARNING* -- Graphic Images

Excite-James

So, yeah...anyway

Hot. Gay. Cat Sex.

BTW

Microsoft hates money

"I hope he chokes on that $250,000."

That is all.

Don't fuck with electricity.

Vikings are cool.

Cruising the Information Superhighway

Stuff.

Making games is hard.

Birthday stuff

365 days ago...

Procrastination Station

Days of Thunder

"Upgwade!"

yawn

WARNING -- Graphic Images