Weekends should be more fun.

Some of this weekend was OK. Most of it kind of sucked...

Saturday we woke up late for Twink's vet appointment, so we had to fly out of the house instantly. Which means I was tired, unshowered and had to go to the bathroom. And I had a headache.

Afterwards, I dropped Lindsay off at the studio and took Twink home. I went running, worked out, and I organized our kitchen. Gifts are starting to come in for the wedding, and I've gotta make room...

My brother called and wanted to play Call of Duty 4. So he, myself, Jesse, Ryan and CJ all got online and tore it up. Well, not really. We got our asses handed to us. In Team Deathmatch, at least, so we tried our hand at Headquarters which went much better.

I think the COD4 crowd is just too good these days to ease someone into the game with Deathmatch. When the purpose is just to get the most kills, they vets have every nook and cranny down pat, every perk tweaked just right and every map memorized from the common checkpoints down to the dirtiest shortcuts. It's no fun.

But HQ mode is more of a fair fight, since people are more concerned with moving and sticking to the objective than camping in the most obscure corner. Together we held our own, and the comments went from "this is hard" and "eff these guys" to rowdy laughter and screams of victory and defeat. it was a blast. For me, at least...

That night I met Lindsay, Adam and Chris S in Uptown for dinner. It was fun, but I was excited to get home because Batman: Arkham Asylum had shown up in the mail earlier in the day, and I've been aching to play it. So I did. And it is good.

Sunday started much like Saturday; too early. I helped unload 8 foot sections of our new 6' tall wooden fence. I was dirty, sweaty, and tired before the day even began. Our washing machine also broke, and I found out that a load of laundry had been sitting in stagnant water in the basement for a week... and it smelled TERRIBLE.

The washer is gone for good, and I hauled the soaking, stinky clothes to the Laundromat. I ran them in the industrial-sized washer 3 times (at 4 bucks a pop)... And they still kind of smell. So there's clothes draped everywhere in our house. They're dry, but we're just giving them a chance to air out a little more... Bummer.

The rest of the day was spent running errands (for cleaning products) and cleaning. Fun fun fun.

At around 7 last night we headed to the studio for a few hours. I got busy on a project, and it was going well, but Lindsay's parents came back and it was hard to work with them talking and moving around constantly. So I didn't get too much done. Shoot.

You don't need ProTools.

Jumping Ducks.

Well, I got a new iPod. Mine wasn't under warranty anymore, so I got a discount for trading in my old one to a recycling program, but I did have to buy a new 120 gig classic black version.

And even though it's the same thing, basically, it's still fun to have a new gizmo, so I've been rocking out extra hard. I've been blasting Lady GaGa in the car, and trying to look extra straight...

The RSVP cards for the wedding are rolling in, now. I spent all last night setting up an excel sheet of replies. Fun. But at least they're coming back.

I've been playing a little bit of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 every night, and I really like it. Every once in a while, they'll have a turret level or something, which is lame, but when it's just straight up stealth, squad-based shooting with cool support equipment, then it's totally rad.

Today I went straight to the studio after work. Lindsay and I went for a walk. We ended up at Lake Calhoun with some challah in hand. We found a big group of about 20 teenage ducks, and fed them until we had less than half a loaf left...

The ducks were super brave, and we're jumping to take the bread right out of our hands. It was super cute and I'm sad I didn't have my camera...

We went home and met up with Adam. We all went to Moto-i, a new-ish Japanese Restaurant on Lyndale and Lake. It had some pretty bad-ass food. We'll be going back, for sure.

It's almost 3 am now, and my eyelids just got really heavy.

We have to take Twink into the vet tomorrow. He's allergic to something about the late summer, and he's getting too itchy for his own good. We have to take him in for his serious allergy shot before he itches all the skin off his head. Again.

100% awesome.

I just beat Shadow Complex. I beat the shit out of it. I got 100% of the items and secrets, and I unlocked the entire map.

It was awesome and I totally had a great time. Towards the end, I kind of pulled my hair our a bit searching for the last couple secrets, but considering I rarely give a crap enough to do something like that, it really says something about the game.

Exploration is the main draw of this game, much like it was with Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which this game is heavily compared to. It's just fun to explore and move around the environment. You're given a really excellent set of tools, including the hookshot, weighty triple jump, and environment changing foam, that just traversing the rooms, puzzles and world is fun.

The whole thing was so tight and so fun, I'm really, really impressed. I am sure after a bit of time I'll go back and play it again (I will probably skip on the whole 100% thing next time, though).

My iPod is acting up again. I go through iPods like some people go through Kleenex, if I get a new one it will be my 4th or 5th... But that's ok. I treat that thing like a piece of crap. I carry it with me everywhere, and use it constantly. I drop it. Daily. In the snow. In puddles. On concrete. Once off of a second story ledge...

And they usually work for nearly two years, which might not sound impressive, but I run that puppy through the wringer. Plus, I have yet to actually buy another one. Every time I bring it back, it's usually just under the two year warranty (once by a matter of days). So if I finally do have to pay for a new one, I will gladly do so.

I'm going to get it checked out at the Apple Store tonight, and they'll pass final judgment. Either way, I think I'm coming home with a new one. Which is always kind of fun, even though it's the same thing as I already had, basically.

And after that I expect to play some Call of Duty 4 with my brother. This will mark the third(?) time he's turned on his 360 since I gave him a free one a year ago (or was it two?).

In hindsight, I probably should have just kept it for the studio. Oh well.

I didn't go to sleep.

In my last post, I was contemplating going to bed, or playing Shadow Complex. I chose Shadow Complex. I played it for a couple hours, until almost 5 am. But man, is that game awesome. I played it whenever I got the chance this weekend, scouring the environment for secrets. I could have beat it hours ago, but I'm having too much fun. I even came to the last encounter, realized that it was going to be the end of the game, and re-loaded my last save so I could keep exploring. I have like 96% of the secrets and 97% of the map open, so I'm really close...

On Saturday we went to the mall. Wee. We had to get our wedding rings resized and return Lindsay's dress she originally bought for the wedding (which has since been replaced). Adam came along, so we mainly talked about Shadow Complex, and how I was super far and he was stuck on in one room forever.

We weren't at the mall for long, but I stopped by Gamestop and grabbed Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for 10 bucks. I've always been curious about the series, and how could I say no at that price?

When we got home, Lindsay took a little nap. I took the opportunity to try out GRAW 2, and I'm very pleased. I love stealthy, tactical squad-based shooters, and that's exactly what this is.

On Sunday we started the day with a long walk with the dogs. We walked down to where Lake Street meets the Mississippi River. On the way back we walked through a private High School's campus. They had a fenced in football field, so we took the opportunity to let the dogs off the leash. At first they were super excited, but they ran out of steam quickly. I decided to run laps and make them chase me, to get them really worn out. At first they thought it was a blast, but they started to lag further and further behind… lazy dogs.

When we left, they were panting and worn out. We still had about a mile until we were home, and it was just too much for Twink. As we were walking, he was getting slower and slower and getting closer and closer to the ground. Finally, he moved onto the grass and collapsed. We were worried at first, but he was just really tired out. Lindsay gave him some iced tea, and I carried him the rest of the way home. Poor little guy. By the time we were home, he was perky and awake.

We spent the rest of the day at the studio. I worked on some cats, posted this sketch, and played some WoW.

Adam came down from his place, and we ran to grab some take-out BBQ. It was awesome. And I never want it again.

We didn't leave the studio until about 10:30 or so, and I stayed up way too late playing Shadow Complex and GRAW2. I should have gone to bed… I say that every day.

Sweaty Nachos.

I just got home and my ears are ringing.

After work today I went home to rest up. I played Shadow Complex (hot shit) and just chilled out to get my second wind.

Lindsay came home and we went out to pick up Adam and Ryan to go out dancing. Chris C and Jess met us there, and Amelia showed up randomly with some other folks....

We danced like crazy, until we (or at least I) was soaking wet. We headed out around 12:30, when the place got too packed to move. On my way out this dude stopped me and demanded we stay and dance more. I told him to come earlier next time, when the dance floor is empty.

Chris C and Jess took off, but the rest of us went to Little T's for some late night Nachos. 2 hours of super intense exercised followed by Nachos always makes me a little sick, but I always do it. It's so good. Francesca showed up before we all took off.

Now I'm home and I'm trying to decide if I should log into WoW, play Shadow Complex, or go to bed. I was leaning towards Shadow Complex before I sat down, but now I might pass out, so bed seems like a good choice, too.

Also: holy shit. If you play WoW, you will realize what a huge deal this is...



I still can't even believe they are changing the existing world, instead of just adding to it. It's smart, but it's kind of strange to think that the old game as we know it will be gone forever...

5 2-D games, pretty much.

Shadow Complex came out today, and I downloaded it first thing in the morning. Of course, I still had to wait until I got home to play it...

I'm way more impressed with the Summer of Arcade line up than I originally thought. I remember poo poo-ing it with friends, but consider me pleasantly surprised.

'Splosion Man seemed too simple to really catch my attention, but now that I've given it a shot it's really won me over. It's the most pure, straight-up platformer I've seen in a long, long while. And I will always take 2-D platforming over 3-D. I would say it's definitely the sleeper hit of the bunch.

Marvel VS Capcom was a gimme. I knew it was good. I already own it, too. But the ability to play online adds a ton since I don't live in a college dorm environment with constant competition anymore. So nice I bought it twice (this month alone).

TMNT: Turtles in Time is easily the dud of the bunch, it's just not very good. But it's Ninja Turtles and I am a child of the eighties. And TMNT, specifically, was my joint. Everyone liked Ninja Turtles, but I was the one that loved Ninja Turtles. So I can forgive the simple, boring combat and 45 minute game length just because they say "Shell Shocked" when they die...

I've thought Trials HD looked interesting from the start, and I remember a discussion about the PC version on GFW Radio way back (was it so far back it was CGW Radio?). The visual style didn't do much for me at first, but it's tactile nature is actually a nice fit when you're actually playing the game. The game just "feels" good, which matters a lot for a physics-based puzzle platfomer.

And finally there's Shadow Complex, the jewel in the Summer of Arcade crown. This is the one I've been super interested in it since I first heard details about it. 2-D platfomer? Orson Scott Card? Metroid-like? Nathan Drake's voice? I was sold. Everyone on the internet has a huge boner for it, too. I played about the first 1/2 hour of the story, and I went through some Challenge Rooms, and so far, I'm loving it.

Tonight I met Lindsay, Francesca, Chris C and Ryan at the studio and I tried to work on stuff. I made notes on a friends script, and I helped Ryan with his site a bit. I did a little drawing in Illustrator but there was just too many people to be productive...

We ordered some food from Galactic Pizza. I'm not a fan, so I just got a salad. I did try one of Lindsay's pieces, though, and I wish I hadn't. Within minutes I was sick, and felt that way all night. Yuck. Never again.

Manly Party.

This weekend I hosted a bachelor party for my friend Chris S. His brother was in charge of it, but he asked to use our place since we're in the Minneapolis area and have an HD TV, booming stereo, and every relevant videogame console.

So Friday night Lindsay and I went shopping for party food and cleaned house a bit, but not as much as we should have. Things like Fallout 3 and WoW got in the way...

Saturday morning we spent some time really giving the place a once-over. We baked some Booby Cupcakes and got the house in order. The party was a small, laid back affair of friends, food, soda, beer, games, stupid Youtube videos, cupcakes and general nerdery. Just the way I like it.

It went pretty late, but not crazy late. The next day I went to the gym first thing in the morning. It sucked. I was obviously way more tired than I had allowed myself to believe, and I had a hard, crappy time. But I tried my best. I lifted weights a bit, but I was just so out of it that I gave up.

Weightlifting + exhaustion = injury, as I've learned from experience. So I changed it up before anything bad happened. I ran, and that was fine.

We went to the studio in the early afternoon. I had to print and prepare some art to be sent off for an benefit auction. So I spent most of my time doing that. Pain in the butt.

Chris C came over after a while, and Jessie a while after that. Adam and Sara stopped by for a while too. We had a good time, everyone just working on their own thing or hanging out.

When I finished up my project I played some WoW. I've been having a really good time with Kittenface, and I finally made it to the Outlands on Friday. So I've been running around doing quests whenever I can. The Outlands seem pretty dense, I can literally log in, spend 15 or 30 minutes doing a quest or two, and log out. Things aren't as sprawling as the main area of the game. It's super nice.


Me. In Outlands.
I've been playing a lot of Trails HD and 'Splosion Man. Which is why I was up way too late last night.  Both give an okay first impression, but don't get really interesting until later when they get harder.

Trails gets really, really hard. I'm on the last level of the Hard setting, and it's kind of like bashing my head against a wall. In a good way.

'Splosion Man is supposed to be pretty tough, too, and so far there's been some tricky parts. But I haven't seen as much of the game, so I'm guessing it will ramp up fast.

The more I play, the more I like. I only picked up because I had bought 4 out of the 5 "summer of arcade" games, and if you buy all 5 you get 10 bucks free. So 'Splosion Man was free. Which is awesome, because it turns out it's one of the better titles of the group.

Bonus.

Not flashy enough.

I've been staying a little later at work the past couple weeks. I know I'm going to start showing up a little less as the wedding approaches, so I guess I'm balancing that out a bit...

This week I got back into Fallout 3, somehow. I finally wrapped up Broken Steel, the expansion that continued the main quest and raised the level cap to 30. The main storyline in Fallout 3 was completely forgettable (especially compared to the infinitely more interesting side missions), and the same can be said for Broken Steel, but I wanted those extra levels. And I got some sweet loots, too.

I also picked up Marvel VS Capcom 2 on the PS3, which, for those of you counting, is the 3rd time I've bought it in less than 2 years. But it's Mahvel, baby.



The other night we finally got our wedding invites from the printer, so we sat down to stuff and address a ton of envelopes. There's a few straggles, but the bulk have not been sent. And it feels good.





I also got my wedding shoes in the mail, which is the second pair of shoes I've created for the event. I think I'll probably go with the flashier version. But who knows?

This weekend I'm hosting Chris S' bachelor party at our place, so I'll probably be busy with that. I've got to clean and get some stuff ready. It should be predictably relaxed, just friends, food, videogames and fun.

Art fair? More like Fart Flare.

My boss is in China, and left a huge pile of work to get through. Fortunately, we've been flying through it, and I was sitting in a pretty good place by the end of Thursday, so I took Friday off.

I spent all day cleaning. Eventually Ryan came over. We played BlazBlue, Marvel VS Capcom 2, and a little bit of Street Fighter 4 until Chris C got here. We all went out to 112 Eatery and ate the shit out of some awesome food. When we went home at 11 or so, we called up Adam who came over and we all rocked out in Rock Band, played some Wii Sports Resort, and finished up with a little more MVC 2.

Saturday Lindsay and I met up wit Ryan and Adam at the studio and we worked on stuff for a few hours. We took a break and braved the Uptown Art Fair to get some food at Lucia's, and then we walked to First Tech to get some ink for our printers. It was so effin' hot and muggy. Combined with the general god-awfulness of the Art Fair, and it was unbearable...

But I made something cute. Adam, Lindsay and myself went to Herkimer's to get some food. Herkimer is a bar, and I guess we didn't realize how much of a "real bar" it was until we were there... Considering none of us drink, and drunk people make us feel uneasy (due to their unpredictable and loud behavior), it probably wasn't the place to go...

While we were at diner, I got a call from Lindsay's niece and nephews. I had sent them a free month of Xbox LIVE, and they finally hooked it up. They wanted me to play Halo 3. Right now.

I told them they'd have to wait an hour or so. By the time we got home (about an hour later), they had called 2 more times... I did help them get online and set up, and we played Gears of War 2's Horde Mode instead. It was a good choice.

There's 3 boys and 1 girl, plus their dad (Lindsay's brother) so they passed around the controller, each playing until they die. It was a little much for me, and exhausting to constantly be talking to a different pre-teen, but it was fun. The kill count usually ended up being around 15-20 kills for me, 3-7 for them...

Today my parents came up. They wanted to talk about the wedding, see the place, check out hotels, and just reassure us that things we be normal between then two of them, despite the divorce. And it was normal. Oddly so.

We drove all over looking at the studio and all the important locations. They only stayed for about 4 hours, but it was an exhausting 4 hours...

Once they left, Lindsay fell asleep, and I played a level in Psychonauts. I'm going to beat that before Brutal Legend comes out this October (or at least get to the infamously hard Meat Circus level...) and I'm damn close now. I just wrapped up Waterloo World, and if my sources are correct, that means I just have 2 or 3 levels to go...

North Shore.

This weekend Lindsay and I headed North to Sara W's (now Sara O, I guess) wedding.


Lutsen's Lodge. We stayed in a condo you can't see. It's up a hill...

We left Friday morning at 10:30. It's a 5 hour drive, roughly. The wedding started at 5 pm, so we wanted to leave ourselves some breathing room...

Unfortunately, there was highway construction within the first hour which slowed us down. A lot. We got to Lutsen's Resort at about 4:40. Luckily, both our room and the wedding were there, so we ran to the checkout, ran to the room to change and ran to the wedding.


Lindsay on the beach after the ceremony.


Me too.


It was a gay old time.


Passing time, waiting for to dance.


Lindsay prepares to Bust a Move.

The wedding was right on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was nice. We were pretty much the only people in our age range who decided to make the trek, and the only one's from the Minneapolis area, so Lindsay and I kind of kept to ourselves.

After the wedding ceremony there was appetizers and drinks for a while. It started pouring rain for about 5 minutes. All the guests were dry and safe under a tent, but Sara was having pictures taken on the beach and got a little damp.

Lindsay and I took the time to explore the lodge, since we hadn't seen anything of it yet. They had ping pong.

Eventually dinner started, followed by dancing. And we busted several moves. We had the floor to ourselves a fair amount of the time.

The younger crowd was too macho or whatever (think Larry the Cable Guy) to cut a rug. Most of the dudes there were real manly hunting men. The kind who never take off their cammo baseball hat... even if they're in the wedding party...

The kind of guys who can be jerks and might be threatened by anything slightly different. At one point a young woman (one of their girlfriends) came up to me and handed me a couple bucks, saying it was from the dudes by the bar. I looked over, and as I did, she pat my crotch.

The whole group of guys laughed uproariously. I was annoyed but ultimately didn't really care and shrugged it off, but Lindsay wasn't too happy. For a while she was pretty... irritated. Eventually we were back to tearing up the dance floor after I convinced her that they were just threatened by my fun-loving, flamboyant, non-self conscience dancing and were jealous they couldn't just let go of their inhibitions and have a good time, despite their copious amounts of alcohol.

By the time we left, I was drenched in sweat. After the wedding, we tried out our room's huge Jacuzzi, but since our body heat was already at an all-time high from dancing, it just kept our temperature way too high. It took a long time to cool off.


Sunday morning on a bridge.


Lake Superior and spiky hair.

On Sunday we woke up a little late. We got some food at the Lodge's pub, and then went Kayaking. We were supposed to go on Lake Superior, but the wind was too high and the water was too choppy, so we drove to another lake.

We went with a guide and a group of 8. We used tandem Kayaks, so Lindsay and I got to work together and actually be able to talk and enjoy the trip together. It was fun.


On the trail from the Condo to the Lodge.


Again.

When we got back, Lindsay was really tired and wanted to take a nap. But I forced her to go Golfing.


Hi, Golfers.


That Golf Course is pretty high up there...


That's Lindsay's Tea. I'm not really drinking it because tea tastes like dirt.

Once we were out, she was awake again. They had a real Golf course and a Par 3, so we did the Par 3, naturally. Lindsay had never actually played Golf, just practiced at the driving range, so I think a Par 3 course was a perfect fit. She did really well, and he had a good time.


Four! I mean, Fore!


Feel the Power.


Who's that? Tiger Palmer?


Who's that? Arnold Woods?


Feel the excitement.


Can love bloom on the Battlefield Golf Course? Uh huh.


How does this make that little ball fly so far?

After that we messed around on the beach climbing rocks and taking photos until it got dark and started to sprinkle a little.


Bright and Sunny.


Love that North Shore.


Rock out on the Rocks.


Own it.


The Incredible Hulk...


Look behind that rock! It's a person in a yellow sweater!


A fern.


Beach party.


Look closely. I'm in there.


It's cold out there on the rocks.


Master of the Lake.


I am running out of things to say...


Lindsay found a feather. Later I lost it...


Perched.


Did I step in something? Jellyfish? Moose poo?


Sexy waves.


Sea Monster.

For dinner we went a few miles down the road and found a Pizza/bakery place and got dinner and dessert. By that point we were pretty wiped, so we went back to our condo and played some World of Warcraft. We were ruffing it.

We left town on Monday. We were out by 10:30, and back in Minneapolis at around 4:30. There was construction again...

We went out with Chris C and Ryan to work at the Tea Garden, went to Roat Osha for dinner, and by the time it was Midnight, I couldn't stand to be awake anymore...


Flowers!


Bugs!

The end.