Blame game.

Alright, I was going to do a better job posting. Why? Who cares? I don't know. But I was going to do it. But I didn't.

Here's a few things I blame;

Work!
We had to really crunch on another round of greeting cards. They were actually pretty cool and a lot of fun to make, but unfortunately they were more labor intensive than the previous designs by a lot. We promised a tight turnaround and busted our asses, but still missed it by a couple days (Friday to Monday though, who cares about the weekend anyway?).

We were at the studio until about 2 am many-a nights, so I was focusing more on that then writing blog posts that read "I stayed at my desk for 16 hours today..."

Final Prep for remodeling
We start our final push (I hope) for finishing up the work we've been doing our house for about a year now... We are tearing down walls, installing cabinets and counters, and opening the staircase. Or rather, some dudes we hired are doing all that. Our job is to get the upstairs ready, make a plan for the project, and get the cabinets.

We start actual construction on Monday, so that's gonna suck.

Getting in Shape
With the deadlines we've had lately and the freezing, freezing, painful weather, I haven't got the gym nearly as much as I'd like. I've been trying to make a big push to change that. I've been walking to the gym despite the subzero temperatures, and I've been trying to stay on top of it no matter what. So far so good, kind of.

Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2 is awesome. Totally awesome. Every minute I could steal away to play it, I did. It was actually finding the time was actually pretty tough. Mainly because of our deadlines, but I also refused to play it at the studio, or during the day. I wanted it on my huge tv, in pitch black, for full effect.

I did have a hiccup on the final boss. It was late one night and I came to the end, and playing the boss over and over and over. And I could not win. I was ill-prepared, with the wrong weapons, no health, and no chance of winning. I came kind of close, but I would run out of ammo and be S.O.L.

I got really, really angry. I couldn't believe such an expertly made game could set me up to fail so hard. The last boss is of a fairly painful design anyway; the 'boss' is a one hit kill if they so much as touch you, and you are constantly swarmed with garbage minions. I didn't know what to expect so I had slow, powerful weapons, so fighting the swarm was particularly impossible.

I quit and went to bed fuming, but the next night I re-loaded a save 10 minutes previous, loaded up with the proper tools for the job, and it was a freakin' cake walk. So it sucks I had the problem, but it was no big deal in the end.

I wholeheartedly recommend the game, and I've already started a New Game + and I'm half way through again. So, so good.

etc, etc, etc
So that's the main stuff. But other things of note: I hurt my back a couple days ago. I don't know if it was because I feel on the ice, pushed myself too hard at the gym, or what, but I couldn't sit up in bed, turn my neck, or ride in a car without wincing.

I first noticed the pain a bit on Wednesday, but Thursday it was out of control. While Lindsay was at class, I walked over to Keep In Touch Massage and got a massage. I let pick a masseuse, but it happened to be Norm, the owner. And he was amazing. I like a lot of pressure. I don't think anyone's been able to really give me the pressure I'm looking for, but Norm nailed it. It hurt so, so bad. But so good. I could barely stand it, and he was amazed at how wrecked my back was. there were knots on knots, but he worked them out and even extended my session 15 minutes so he could do it properly.

When I got up off the table, I was amazed. It was like the pain was gone entirely.

Of course, over the next day or so I got some pain from all the toxins that were realized, as well as my muscles tightening up a bit, but I feel amazing.

I was able to go to the Roller Rink that night, which I thought I'd never do in the morning. Adam, Lindsay, Francesca and myself met up with Victoria and her friends. For some skate rink action to the smooth jams. It was a 25 and up night, and Francesca is only 24, so we had to do some smooth talking and the ticket dude wasn't happy, but we made it in.

Today I ran to the gym towards the end of the day. My back felt great and I felt like my work out was twice as good as normal. I might start getting massages a lot more regularly from now on...

Other than that, Stacking came out and it's really cool, Bionic Commando 2 came out and I can't resist that formula, even though it's review a fair bit worse than the first.

Also, my PS3 died. Bad. I will be sending it in, there a box on it's way, but right now it seems like I'm loosing all my data. Sucky. Sucky. Sucky. I've had that thing for 3 or 4 years now, and I have a lot of saves I don't want to lose. I'm hoping I can figure out a way to salvage my data before it comes because it sounds like Sony just wipes it clean from the get-go.

I'm having bad luck with hardware lately.

Alright. I'll be back more frequently again, I promise. Oh yeah, I also blame Twitter. I have been sharing thoughts and stuff there, so check out @teenwolfdude if you really miss my blathering.