UP, up and Away.

We went to see UP with Chris S, Isara, Adam and Sara on Friday.



UP was awesome. Totally awesome. Incredibly so. Of course, Pixar is always amazing, but I think UP might be one of the best to date.

There was so much that I was just in awe of... the super cohesive and hilariously stubby design. The lighting and translucency of things like skin, balloons and foliage. The way the beginning of the movie has a wordless montage that tells a story in 5 minutes that's more profound and emotional than most movies in their entirety.

Saturday I went to the gym and it was one of those days that everything feels right. I love those days...

When I came home, Adam and Chris C came over. We all went to the driving range. Adam and Chris C don't golf, and Adam had never even hit a ball, or so he says. Lindsay goes to the driving range with me, but always needs a refresher. So I pretty much spent the first bucket just getting everyone in order and teaching them the basics. Adam was a natural, though, and picked it up super fast.

Eventually Chris C and Lindsay went to just put and talk and stuff while Adam and I hit another bucket. Then we moved over to the practice green and worked on chipping and putting, the hard part of golf.


Men of Leisure.


Discussing the finer points of Pokemon.


Quit half way through...


...only to eat plants and flex non-existent muscles.


A perfect chip into the hole immediately follow this candid shot.


Superb putting form.


Taking a deuce for excellence.


The Practice Green!!!


You Drive for Show, Putt for Dough. We are both broke.


Approaching the flag...


...showing the flag who's boss.


I don't know what Chris C and Lindsay were doing while we were playing...


...but Chris C sure is proud/surprised by it!


Golf is a respectable game.

After that we went to Burger Jones, because everyone was in the mood for Burgers. Well, two of the 4 were. Two of us can't really eat beef anymore, but we assumed they'd have good Veggie burgers, too. Burger Jones is owned by the same people that own Chino Latino (or so I hear) and like Chino, there was a huge wait to get in...

Chris C had to be back for a friend's bachelor party, so we skipped it and got some Punch Pizza. I acted sad, but I actually love Punch much more than burgers...

Adam and I hung out at my place and played Capcom VS SNK 2, while Lindsay ran out to get some cat supplies... and came back with another bird.

A yellow Canary. To match the red one we already have. The red Canary's name is Dean, the yellow's Hank. Naturally.

Lindsay and I logged into World of Warcraft last night... I should really just cancel my account. We literally play for about 1 1/2 hours once every 2 months. If that. But we are suckers, I guess.

We are both about to crest Level 40. Whoo! 1/2 way to the level cap. But I heard the grind we are in in one of the longest and most painful in the game, and that Strangethorn Vale, the area we've been questing in for months and months, is where a lot of people up and quit. We're just about out of the woods, so hopefully we'll cruise after this...

My goal is to at least reach level 55, so I can make a Death Knight, and then to hit level 58, so I can FINALLY move on to the Outlands. So then I'll start to experience 2007's fresh new content... I don't know if I'll EVER get to see Northrend.

the nerdiest post in the history of nerdism.

Let me preface this rant by saying, if you know what patch notes are, then you're already a dork, so bear with me...

This is super nerdy, and I know this. It's a post about Killzone 2 patch notes, a game most people (that I know) don't care about. Hell, even I barely play it, but I might more often thanks to some of these changes....

Here's the highlights and why they matter to me.

They've added a better Party system. Which was a huge deal. Now you can be sure to be on the same team as your friends, and travel from game to game together. It even puts you in the same squad automatically. Sounds like no biggie, considering it should be standard practice at this point, but considering the problems Ryan and I had even playing one game together, it's a Godsend. Although it's too late for us to appreciate it since he ditched his copy...

You can now switch teams if they become unbalanced. Obviously you can only move from the overpopulated side to the underpopulated side, but that's perfect. I've been in a lot of games where it's been 8 against 16 or something, and I always end up on the small end...

A new High Precision Mode control option. I don't know if it's good or bad until I try it, but any steps to tighten up the controls couldn't hurt...

No more temporary invulnerability after spawning from a tactical spawn grenade! Now tactical spawns won't be a super cheap way to just own the spot... but they could turn into a super cheap way to rack up kills against a stupid team who doesn't know to quit using the spawn grenade they the other team is camping it.

And the best of all... you can unlock badges and level up in the Skirmish Mode! Level up against AI bots? Awesome! Finally, I can see/try out all the classes without getting my ass handed to me over and over again!

Alright. I promise my next post will be about Rock n' Roll, banging chicks and lifting weights.

BeebeeShoe

Monday was Memorial Day. Throughout the weekend, a few people asked if we were throwing a BBQ, like we have in the past. Originally it hadn't really crossed out minds, but on Sunday we finally said "fine, we will."

So we spent a lot of Sunday driving around picking up things we needed; food, charcoal, a couple new chairs, a kickball and a football... So we'd be in good shape for the BBQ.

Monday we woke up and immediately started to clean hardcore. There was a chance of rain, so if we had to host it inside, we didn't want everyone sitting in a cloud of pet hair and fecal matter...

We were able to pull off a pretty spectacular job before people started arriving at 2. We set up in the back yard, and quickly there was a group of 8 or 10 people. I cooked the crap out of some meat and non-meat. Good stuff.

After a while, we all walked two blocks down to the school with 4 baseball diamonds. We played kickball, but since we didn't have enough people to properly cover the field, we just had everyone play the field and one person kicking, which worked well, actually.

But soon some kids from the neighborhood joined in, one who was probably 10 or 11, first, and then a group of teens. At that point we split into two teams and it was a blast. There was a lot of scoring, and a TON of base stealing. Also some heckling, mainly by me.

Eventually they teens had to leave, so the remaining people played 500 with the football we brought. We quickly realized it was not realistic to expect people to actually catch the ball, so we just made it so whoever got the ball first got the points. It went well, except when Lindsay got her turn to throw and just threw it at everyone's crotch.

Victoria showed up with a group of her friends, and we walked home and started Round 2 of BBQ action. Soon everyone was stuffed, and some people cleared out at 9:30 or 10:00. A small group stayed to play You're In the Movies, which was predictably ridiculous and stupid.

Everyone finally left at midnight or so. Luckily I had cleaned up most of the mess while they were still here, so I didn't have to much left to do before I got to play Mad World, a Wii game Adam lent me, for an hour or so.

All this, and I didn't take a single picture with my new camera. I am stupid.

lots of people.

Last night Adam, Ryan, Lindsay, Sidney, Andres and Brian all went to diner at Chino Latino. It was my fist time meeting a couple of them, but Lindsay knows them well. It was a good time, and the food, as always, was amazing.

After diner, we all crammed in a clown car and came back to out place. We played loads of RockBand 2, followed by some Street Fighter 4. Andres' friend is a tournament level player, so Andres is pretty good. So between Adam, Andres, Ryan and myself there was some pretty hearty competition.

We wrapped up the night with some trolling in Playstation's Home. I used my ugly-as-sin avatar to bother people who were doing god-knows-what. Socializing in a serious manner, I guess. Home is worthless, but going in and fucking around every 4 or 6 months makes for a funny 10 minutes or so.

By the time everyone cleared out and we went to bed, the sun was coming up. Oops.

Today I went to the gym before going to lunch at Yum!, which was awesome. Then we went to the Tea Garden for a few hours and worked with Ryan. Eventually we left due to Ryan being hungry, but he and I met up online to play some Halo.

But Jesse and Adam G. were online, so we all played some Left 4 Dead. I was very, very rusty. Super rusty. But we played the Finale of Blood Harvest, and then tried out the Survival Mode, which I haven't played yet. We lasted 2:51. Not too good. But no one was really giving it they're all. Adam was just about to take Jesse to the airport, so we were pushing it as it was....

So Ryan and I did boot up Halo and played through a couple chapters. Chris S came online at some point and joined in.

It was fun, but the last chapter we played was just a little too long. I felt like I was done, but we had to push on just to make sure we didn't have to do a huge section over.

I'm pretty tired now, I guess that's what I get for going to bed so late last night...

Lindsay's back.

Jeez, it's Friday already.

We had a big push at work and presented an entire line, and it went well. I've been flying through stuff, for some reason. Someone must have flipped a switch, because things are falling into place.

Thursday Lindsay came back to town. She was supposed to come in at 5 on Thursday, so I took off a little early to pick her up. But she missed her flight, and i didn't get the message until it was too late.

So Chris C and I went out for some Indian food, which was totally awesome. Then we went to play Basketball, but little children were playing. So we took the dogs for a walk.

Then Adam and I played the final chapter of Gears of War 2. We were literally less than 1 hour from the end when Adam left for NYC, so we finally just wrapped that shit up.

The credits were rolling when Lindsay called for a ride.

Today work was fine, a pretty relaxing day and I was actually able to get a bunch done.

I went home and played the inFAMOUS demo, it's pretty darn rad. I'm thinking about buying it when the retail game hits on Tuesday...

Now Lindsay's home and we should be going to Chino Latino any minute with a bunch of people. Too bad I'm super exhausted...

Random tunes and indie games.

Today, again, I had a hard time getting started. I got up and went to the gym, but forgot my headphones, so I went to Target instead. I needed bunch pet supplies, which cost a pretty penny when you stack them all at once...

I came home and worked out here, listening to the jams. For some reason I can't stop listening to Bush's Sixteen Stone. It's totally random and unreasonable. Another guilty pleasure is this song...



A throwaway song from Burnout Paradise that got stuck in my head. Damn you Burnout Paradise. It's like a girl Rob Zombie backed by En Vouge. Maybe?

I called up Ryan and we decided to get food and go work at the coffee house. He was in the middle of a movie, so I had a bit of time. I messed around with more indie games, thanks to Today I Die.

I tried a couple made by the same creator, Storyteller and I Wish I were the Moon.

Then I downloaded passage and Primrose.

Of them all, I think Primrose is the best "game," Passage has the most interesting concept (it did make me a little sad), but the other's have their merits.



On the slightly less Indie front, I also downloaded the demo for Defcon: Everybody Dies. This game is scary. I literally had a strange feeling in my stomach playing it. It's totally cold and distant, which is what's discerning.

I don't know if it's a game for me, I'm too impatient to make strategy decisions like that, but it's definitely something that's totally worth checking out.

I found it when I was looking for Aquaria which I also downloaded the demo for, but have yet to try it out.



I liked this one just for the art (although Defcon: Everybody Dies aesthetics are pretty killer). I feel like I should have a console controller just looking at it, though...

Jeez, that sounds like a whole lot, but all of the first games take no longer than 5 minutes to experience, and only played the Tutorial for Defcon... So if it sounds interesting at all, it couldn't hurt to check a couple out...

Eventually Ryan arrived and we went to Longfellow Grill before meeting Chris C at the coffee house and working for a few hours. I wrapped up the project (I hope) that I've been working on just as they closed and we called it a night...

I wish Oliva wouldn't do that...

Today I Die is a little 2 minute game that alot of people have been praising. It's free, it's flash, and it's short. No excuse to not play it, right?

Well, it's also completely unexplained, so if you don't happen to figure out what to do to start, you might be scratching your head for a while. I know I did. But once I finally got the first piece solved, the rest came within seconds...

So, for a minute I thought the whole thing was a terrible stupid mess, created for the sole purpose of making me feel dumb. The reality is that it's a fun little experience that has the potential to be frustrating to anyone not willing to poke around aimlessly for a minute or two.

I had to work a little later than I expected on early. Not super late, but since I was hoping to duck out a little early, it felt late. I was hoping to make it to the gym, but by the end of the day I changed my mind.

On my way home I called up Ryan and Chris S, and they both headed my way. We ordered some pizza and played a ton of Street Fighter 4 and Rock Band, until pretty late. It was loads of fun.

They probably left at around 2, but for some reason I decided to play Battlefield. Going to bed on time is hard when your significant other is gone. Actually, I guess 4 am is a pretty normal time go to sleep around here, and I might actually get to bed earlier with Lindsay gone.

I got up pretty late on Saturday and took my time getting rolling. I went to the gym and did a bunch of yard work, which was desperately overdue, and that pretty much lasted until 6 or so. Pretty much my whole day.

I went to the Uptown Tea Garden with Ryan, and we worked until midnight. I went home and played Fable 2 for a while. Not too exciting, I guess. But I did get a lot of achievement points, so that counts for something, right?

Oliva went nuts last night when I was trying to go to sleep. She was so affectionate I wanted to throw her...

It's Friday. Already. This week hasn't flown by, I guess, but it's pretty packed with crap.

This morning I took Lindsay to the airport at 4 am. She's off to NYC for about a week, for the Stationery Show, Surtex, and I think she's hitting the a Candy show in Chicago on the way back. She brought 4 interns, and Becky. That's a handful.

She's not the only one. I have to deal with Oliva, who tries to wake me up by biting, hitting and purring my face off at 5 am. Lindsay usually has the tollerance to give her the attention she's looking for (Lindsay also doesn't have to be at an office by 9 am). So when Lindsay's gone, it's up to me...


seriously. everyday.

Work has been going well, we're working on a line that got off to a rocky start. Between the change of ownership, restructuring and just general confusion, the line has been neglected for some time. So when we finally got back around to it... we had forgotten some of our original vision. So we've been feeling our way back to the right track, and it's a process, for sure.

But I think on Tuesday or Wednesday we put everything out and looked at it, to address the good and the bad, and that really helped to put a vision in everyone's head of where to land. Since then I've been cranking stuff out.

Over the past week, I've tried to put aside some time for Gears of War 2 with Adam. We're SO close to the end, but he left for NYC, as well, so I guess the last hour or so will have to wait until next week. That game is really, really good, though. I had forgotten all of these "holy crap" moments, but it all came back to me as we played through together.

I also started Battlefield: Bad Company. I had a Best Buy gift certificate that was going to expire this week, so I had to find something to get. I've wanted Bad Company since it came out, but I've always found an excuse to not get it. There was a demo when it launched, and I played a few hours of the multiplayer, and the single player section 2 or 3 times, so I obviously liked it a good deal.



When I was at Best Buy, I found it for 15 bucks. So I paid less than 10 bucks for it, and I have to say it was money well spent. I really, really like Bad Company so far. The controls and pace of play reminds me a little of a super-explosion happy Far Cry 2. Which I couldn't be more happy with.

I haven't even touched the multiplayer yet, but that was one of my favorite parts of the demo, so I'm excited.

This weekend I hope to get some work done. Last weekend I spent all Sunday "finishing" a secret project I'm helping Chris S with, and I heard back from his editor the other day so I hope to really wrap that up right away this weekend. I have another project I NEED to get moving on, so that will be next on my agenda.

I also need to mow the lawn, do laundry, hit the gym everyday and clean the house a bit. So I should be busy.

Adam is one BAMF.

you know what BAMF stands for? you do now...

This picture wasn't taken yesterday. It was taken a week or two ago. But the remnants from those fake tattoos are still visible.

Yesterday finally started Season 3 of Venture Bros. Wieners abound. Chris C came over and we went out and played some basketball in the early afternoon. Well, we played HORSE. There were only three of us. I didn't win a single game, despite my obvious height advantage. At some point Lindsay had to sit out, because it was a little chilly, but we asked some kid who was shooting hoops all by himself to play with us. His name was Marcus, and he had a little brother who didn't want to be there. The little kid kept threatening to ride his bike home and tell his dad to come back and whoop Marcus' ass with his belt for some reason.

Then we went to the Uptown Tea Garden. Chris C and I hung around there while Lindsay went a hair appointment and then met with her 4(!) interns. We were there for hours, and I kind of got a lot done. I guess.

Lindsay and I bought, and then played, a bunch of songs in RockBand. Right when we were quitting, Ryan came online and wanted to play Halo 3. How could I argue? A little late to the party, but he finally got it just to play with me, so we played a good chunk of the campaign. That's my 3rd or 4th time playing through the game, but it's always entertaining.

The combination of drastically different enemy types and crazy weapons, not to mention the vehicles and power-ups, mean that there's always a different way to approach a situation. And the upping the difficulty actually means the enemies behave differently (as opposed to just making their weapons stronger and giving the more hit points) adds a lot too. I'm not one for being a snob about difficulty, but Halo 3 on Normal is a completely different game than Halo 3 on Legendary.

Then Lindsay wanted to play WoW, but changed her mind as soon as we finally downloaded all the new patches and stuff...

pillowcat.

That's a cute picture. Here's a totally unrelated blog about a game.

I've broke down (quickly) and picked up Popcap's new game, Plants Vs Zombies...

Popcap is the company behind Bejewled. Maybe you've heard of it? Even better, they're behind Zuma. And even way better than that, they made Peggle. Which is easily one of the better games of all time, obviously.

Despite all this casual gaming greatness, I kind of tried to resist Plants Vs Zombies. It's kind of a Tower Defense game, a genre basically made famous by Desktop Tower Defense, and iterated upon a million times (my favorite of which being PixelJunk Monsters). But even with the best, it's a difficult and nerve wracking genre, and I don't like to play Tower Defense games much.

But Plants Vs Zombies is pretty different, in a good way. And I kept going back to the (timed) demo. I didn't know if I was going to buy it, until I was in the middle of a level and the demo expired. It gave me the option to buy, I clicked "yes" and went right back into the level... I think I had purchased it before I even realized what happened...

gears of spring.

It's been super-duper extra-special nice outside this week. Sunny and warm, but not hot. Just enough to give you extra energy and lust for life.

I've been alternating days between going to the gym and running outside. Finally.

I've been doing a good job, since it's so nice, of going into exercise mode right after work every day, but last night I decided to take a break. My muscles are feeling tense, not super painful and cramped up, but just like they're full of acid, which they probably are.

So I went home, but Lindsay and I decided to go rollerblading down West River Parkway, which has a running / bike trail that follows the river. It's about 2 blocks away, has great views of the Mississippi, some trees and woods, nice houses (mansions?) and terminates at an impressive waterfall, but it's actually kind of rare that we get out to see it all. So we did that.

At about 10:30 or so, Chris C came over and we took a basketball to the park a block away. Since it was so late all the lights were off, which made B-Ball pretty difficult. So instead we played on the playground equipment, of which there is a lot. Super awesome stuff, too. The kind of playground equipment that's so varied and cool that I am jealous we didn't have that kind of awesome stuff when I was a kid.

We got a workout, climbing poles, doing flips and spinning on swings, and were out for an hour or two, and it was still totally warm and comfortable out after midnight.

Ahhh, spring/summertime. Makes me want to put on the jams.


Like a little Pete Rock.

Other nights this week have been spent playing Gears of War 2 whenever possible. Adam finally finished the first Gears of War, and so he could finally pop in Gears 2, which he bought a LONG time ago. Of course, I beat Gears 2 last year, but I'm going through the campaign with him again, which is a blast.



But even more fun is Horde Mode, which Ryan has been joining in on. Horde mode takes any multiplayer level and pits you and up to 4 friends against wave after wave of enemy onslaught. Of increasing complexity and difficulty, of course. It is a blast, and one of the best multiplayer modes ever, especially for people (like Adam) who aren't interested in competitive online games.

Of course, humans being competitive by nature, Ryan and I find ways to make it competitive. We try our hardest to steal kills. Horde ammo to ourselves. Allow the other to get killed while we watch. Jerkface stuff.

Eventually, as the waves ramp up and things get hectic, out of nowhere an unspoken truce in formed and we work together as a team. And things get really, really hectic. It's a magical thing.

So that's been thing game de jour, and I've only been waiting 6 months for these fools to get around to it...

a description of the weekend again for no reason.

Kind of a big weekend. Kind of.

This friday I could barely stay awake at work. I was SOOOOOO tired. It's been an exhausting couple weeks, pet deaths, corporate restructuring complete with layoffs, blah blah blah.

Lindsay wanted me to meet her, Adam and Chris C in uptown, but I just couldn't. I had to go sleep. So I did. 3 hours later, and I felt pretty much just as terrible as I did before hand, but I could at least tolerate being upright.

But by then, Lindsay, Chris and Adam were headed my way. We all met up at the house, and went to Sakura via the Tea Garden. There was a show at the Tea Garden for a few of Lindsay's students, so we were required to show up.

I was coherent enough to talk shit with Chris C and Adam, but not enough to make small-talk with strangers. I tried, but I ended up staring, silently and awkwardly, right into the face of a couple girls before I hightailed it to a corner with Adam.

Sakura was good. Then we went back to our place and played Fat Princess and You're in the Movies... Good times.

I showed Lindsay a website called SquareSpace which I'm pretty impressed with. I thought she could use it to create Paper Bicycle. She is trying it out, and went pretty nuts. She stayed up until 5 am playing around with it.

I sat by her side and played Dead Space. I beat the shit out of that game. It was awesome. I borrowed it from Chris S, which is why I felt pressure to fly through it, but I think it was good enough that if I see it on the cheap, I'll pick it up for sure. It's worth adding to the permanent collection...

Saturday morning was the Humane Society Walk for the Animals. You're supposed to be there early if you want to participate. Like 9 am early. We had plans to go, but didn't get up until 12:30 or 1. But we still threw ourselves, and our dogs, in the car and raced over to the Golden Valley Humane Society, and had enough time to turn in our pledge sheets, get a hotdog, but some new collars, and look at tons and tons of animals.


ignore the red rocket.


awwwww.


down right frightening.

We didn't really do that "walk" but I'm ok with that.

We went home and kind of bummed around for a bit. I went to the gym with Lindsay and worked out so hard I nearly puked. Then we got ready to go out for the night, and waited around. I played a couple rounds of Killzone 2 multiplayer until Adam showed up, and we went to pick up Chris S and Isara for Chris S' birthday.


the birthday boy and his dame.


small people unite!


i think she was imitating a fish we were about to eat.


that's one big meal.


excited to be alive.


too much food.


good times were had by all. esspecially chris s.

6 of us went to Solera, which is a pretty fancy tapas place. It was a good time, and everyone left with a lot in our bellies, but very little left in our wallets.

Today I got up and went running outside. It was sunny and warm-ish. It looked a lot warmer than it really was... Then Chris C came over and we went ot Ghandi Mahal for lunch. It's on the corner of Lake Street and Minnehaha, and there was a huge Cinco De Mayo celebration going on. Mexican music, food, and pimped out cars on hydraulics abound.

Now we're at the Tea Garden, and we've been here for about 5 hours or so. I'm working on a project with / for Chris S, and it's going pretty well (I hope).

But I want to leave now. I'm restless.