SSX Prep Victory

HAHAHAHA, SUCK IT BROTHER! I have been playing a bunch of tricky lately to get myself back in the spirit before SSX comes out in February, and tonight I experienced a victory of epic proportions. I should explain that I bought Tricky used my junior year in college and it was a big hit. My roommates and I all become quickly obsessed. Then I came home to NJ for the summer to intern in New York, and my brother, home from his waitering job during the day while I worked, beat all my high scores in a matter of weeks. Some I was able to defeat, but this Tokyo Megaplex High Trick Score had eluded me for years after he set it. Now mind you, I haven't played this game at all in probably the last three years, and it's been about 7 since he set the record. Today, however, today it came crashing down. And here's the proof:

Elise and I destroyed the record he set with Kaori. Not just by a measy few thousand points. By over 150,000 points! So take that, big bro. ;) Love u.

Wow, it's been forever.

I can't believe how long it has been since I've updated this thing. And how infrequently before then. I can remember when blogging was a multiple-times-per-day activity in college. Back when my computer was always on AND connected to the internet with no concern about the cable or electricity bills, and before I had a job that kept me out of the house for 12 hours a day.

Anyway, some things have come up lately that I have wanted to share with anyone who might still check this thing periodically so I figured I should update.

Number one: my ipod is totally sentient. And it totally gets mood swings. It usually takes me 8 (+/-2) songs to get to work. Sometimes the pod is all sweet and compliant and gives me a perfect mix exactly when I want it. And sometimes not. This week, it has complied pretty well. Here's a sampling of some of the drive-to-work mixes it has delivered:

Monday
1.) I Touch Myself - Divinyls
2.) Just - Radiohead
3.) Whipping Post - Allman Bros
4.) End of the World as We Know It - R.E.M.
5.) Here Goes Something - Nada Surf
6.) You Look So Fine - Garbage
7.) Amber - 311
8.) This is Love - PJ Harvey

Tuesday
1.) Toxic - Britney
2.) Under Your Spell - BTVS Soundtrack
3.) If I Ever Lose My Faith in You - Sting
4.) Paranoid Android - Radiohead
5.) Mixed Bizness - Beck
6.) Great Indoors - John Mayer
7.) Politik - Coldplay
8.) 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins

Wednesday
1.) F**k the Pain Away - Peaches
2.) Mississippi - Sheryl Crow
3.) Me & U - Cassie
4.) New Genious (Brother) - Gorillaz
5.) You Turn the Screws - Cake
6.) Garden - Pearl Jam
7.) Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
8.) Life Your Life - TI

Thursday
1.) See You - Foo Fighters
2.) More and More - Offer Nissim
3.) Rock the House - Gorillaz
4.) 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps (Paul Oakenfold remix)
5.) Electioneering - Radiohead
6.) In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
7.) Break on Through - The Doors

As you can see, when my Ipod is being compliant it is also being conciliatory - towards my extremely eclectic and random music tastes. Judging by these mixes.

Another weird thing about the Ipod - sometimes I feel like it's trying to show me something. Case in point, the other day after Electioneering had already come on once, it tried to play it again later. About 10 seconds in when I realized, "Hey, I've already heard this today," I decided to hit skip. And the next song started - and sounded exactly the same. I thought, "Wtf, Ipod are you sick?" and then noticed it wasn't Radiohead that was playing, but rather, a Lily Allen song. Of course now I can no longer remember which one - but it was a revelation inspired by the "shuffle songs" feature on my personified Ipod.

So that was one thing.

Next. Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang. This music = sweet. Accordion girl's socks = FTW.



That is that.

This art I was directed to by Boing Boing has me convinced that I'm not actually creative at all, just a good duplicator, because I could NEVER think of this. And it is awesome. In case you are wondering - those are CRAYONS. That picture is of a picture created with crayons. Check out the artist's website here. His name is Christian Faur.





Thus far I have resisted the urge to buy nintendo virtual console (VC) points and go crazy downloading games I played on my cousin's SNES. However, the recent arrival of Commodore 64 games on the VC has me singing a different tune. The first (and only) game playing mechanism my parents ever supplied/allowed was the computer. And the three or four 5 inch floppy disks we had with games on them were my first exposure to gameplay. "Dr. J vs Larry Bird," "Summer Olympic Games," and "Pitfall" all hold a great sense of game-related nostalgia for me. So I'm highly tempted to take the plunge and start downloading. Although like many things in life it is a balance between what we want and what we can afford. And if I am ever going to get the Nikon D80 I've been dreaming of for so long, the VC may have to wait. Even with commodore 64 games. But for anyone else out there who experienced these simple but fun games as a child, I encourage you to go check em out on the virtual console.

This story, about an airline in England that accepts a DIY photo id to board a plane gave me no small amount of fear and disbelief when I read it.

If you have a chance, check out this video countering the Ken Starr lawsuit against gay married couples in California.

Whew! That was a lot to get out. But I think that's it for now. I'll try to stop by a little more frequently, but who knows!!

Holy Carp it's February 16th!

I can't believe February is more than halfway over. Where does the time go? This year is flying by. I haven't even used any vacation days yet. I could really use a small weekend getaway, but I just have been too busy at work. Plus I haven't really wanted to spend too much money, since I've been spending a lot on things for my apartment lately. I did get a snow day this week (on Wednesday) which was nice, except I got a little bored after spending the whole day in my apartment. I baked some Valentine's Day cupcakes to amuse myself, and I did have Keith around for half the day. I started a new video game - BTVS, Chaos Bleeds. It's ok, just a hack and slash basically, but it's kind of fun to hear the characters talking. They weren't able to secure all the actors to be voice talent for the game. Xander is definitely himself, but Buffy and Willow are sound-alikes (if there is such a thing). Giles I think might be himself too, and Spike definitely is done by James Marsters. What's weird is that the game combines plot elements from like the first 5 seasons, at least. Kakistos (Faith's vamp from Season 3 ep 3) makes an appearance, but so does the Magic Box. And Anya and Tara both exist, but Dawn doesn't. It's wacky. It's fun to turn on now and again though. I also finally started Chibi Robo (which Keith gave me for Hanukkah.) It's fun, but man, the sounds the characters make are SO annoying, and they won't let you advance the dialogue faster, or skip cut scenes. Arg. But I love Chibi - he's the cutest. And it's fun to explore. However, I'm stuck at the moment. I can't figure out how to get upstairs. I got down to the basement with no problem, but upstairs seems to be missing a step. Grr. Keith says I should just give in and go to gamefaq.com, but I insist that it's cheating to check that site. He disagrees. Se la vie. But back to vacation, there is one that I'm thinking about. Besides hopefully going up to Beantown the third weekend of March, Keith and I just got an intriguing idea from Shaun the other day. We're now considering going to Ultra 9 in Miami. We went to the first Ultra NYC and had a great time, but the lineup of the NY show doesn't compare to what they've got going in Miami. It's just so much more established down there, plus it coincides with Winter Music Conference - gear and tunes at the same time, you know. Anyway, I'm trying to convince him that we should go down. The lineup is literally insane. They've only released 2/3 of the lineup and it goes something like this: Tiesto, PVD, Morillo, Sasha, Digweed, Ferry Corsten, Deep Dish, Sander Kleinenberg, Fat Boy Slim, Carl Cox, Danny Tenaglia, Richie Hawtin, Mauro Picotto, Timo Maas, BT, and so so many more. There are a bunch of Drum and Bass people that Keith likes too (most of whom I've never heard of.) It's two days of electronic music heaven. Way way better than DEMF. The only problem is that trying to fly to Miami in March is really expensive, and it's hard to find flights that aren't at 6am or 11pm. And hotels - foggedaboudit. Very very expensive. So I dunno what we'll do. If only I knew someone who lived down there that we could stay with. Or if other people who we liked were going that we could shack up with for rooming. Like 4 people in 1 hotel room or something. We'd be too tired from dancing all night to want to do anything but sleep, so I don’t see privacy being an issue. I'm sure Keith won't want to stay with Whippany guys if they're going down, though. Anyway, food for thought. I have a crazy weekend ahead of me. Party tonight at my sister's friend (and my old Piano teacher) Peter's house. I've gotta bake cupcakes and put the finishing touches on his stenciled shirt when I get home from work tonight, and then head to Montville to pick up Keith and go down there. I'll put up a pic of the shirt later (and maybe the cupcakes too!) For now, I should get back to work. Since it's crazy busy.