I’ve been noticing those C6 Corvettes about. I must say that Chevrolet has managed to return to the Corvette to an object of desire. It’s not my favorite car ever, but it gets attention for the right reasons, rather than for being a bulbous overstyled blob like the C5.

—

‘fore I forget I should probably mention some wicked sites I’ve been frequenting as of late:

• Absenter and Toybird are a photoblog and word-blog, respectively.
• LightTight is a photoblog too, with shredding.
• Paul actually writes things now.
• I don’t know if I ever mentioned Jason Santa Maria, but I should.
• And on that note, BearskinRug & Inkfinger are some of the best comics ever.
• Yeah, and cars.com, for obvious reasons.

I was thinking “you know, I shouldn’t post today because I already posted two days in a row” but then I realized this is a blog and that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. My bike got to go out today. I went with it, which is even better. Today marked the 2nd time this year that the it actually got out, which is pretty pathetic, but at lease I’ve been doing other stuff. Yeah, exercise.

–

I’m at that point again where I want to do something with this site, so the next week or so I will be focused on absolutely not doing anything with it. It’s not really worth my time to go through and redo everything again if I’m not going to implement any kind of scripting, and I won’t be doing that unless I get some kind of change in hosting because I simply don’t have the space to do anything right now, and there’s no guaranee it will even work with my server.

So there was a brief time period where I sort of broke the deal and bought some stuff, but exceptions had to be made for 50% off sales and t-shirt needs. But I had money left over from Door County, so it’s not a big deal of any sort. My next purchase, or one of them, will have to be new sandals. I have these Old Navy ones that I got for $4 when I was a freshman in college (2000). They’ve just gradually been compressing and wearing away to the point that the sole must be about an eigth inch thick under my heel. It’s not painful, except when I’m walking on any kind of pointy surface. I think it’s time they be retired.

—

Father’s day took me out of town to my parents’ house. It’s in the country, with the closest neighbor being at least a healthy walk away. That’s where I grew up but since moving I’ve not spent much time there. I took some time yesterday to wander a little and check things out, since there is so much there that can catch your interest. It was a nice time – we had a good lunch and then sat around by the river near there and just hung out, which I haven’t done for awhile. I enjoyed it, and I liked the feeling of looking at different areas and trying to remember how they used to be and what I used to do there. It’s always an interesting sensation to visit a place you’ve been away from for awhile.

—

I learned last week that a person I’ve known since kindergarten was injured in the war and has subsequently died. I don’t really know what to think of that. As someone who is generally opposed to the war it saddens me when lives are lost because of it, especially when it’s somebody I knew. At the same time, that’s where he wanted to be and he left school to go there and for that reason it seems like less of a lost cause. It is less difficult to accept somebody dying in a war because you know the possibility is out there when they go. Personally, it’s harder to wrap my mind around a person dying suddenly in a car accident or some other occurence of everyday life. It catches you off guard and makes things much harder.

It’s times like these that make me think about death and dealing with it. I’ve yet to have somebody die that was more than an acquaintance. I suppose this lucky but it’s scary as well, not knowing what feelings to expect when that day comes. I’ve dealt with death thus far with kind of a detached observation. I’m the person who just has the “huh.” reaction when I’m told about it. It’s obviously a sad occurence, but I don’t feel sad so much as dazed. I feel sorry for the people who where hit harder by it, but it doesn’t affect me much, and I don’t know why.

—

On a much less somber note, I drove a Del Sol the other night. This particular specimen was nothing special, but the model in general is certainly worth consideration and I’ll continue to look. I was actually able to make the car go this time without as much effort, so I feel better about searching for a manual transmission in my next car.

Hell has frozen over and pigs are flying. Maybe. But nonetheless, it’s true: Intel processors are set to become a key part of the Mac experience within the next couple of years. When I first heard the rumor, I was moderately surprised. The Apple snob in me, as I think it did in many, was saddened, since you know, that’s what Windows uses, but the more I read about it and the more I think about it, it seems to make sense. I have no doubt that Apple will be able to retain all the parts crucial to the enjoyability of a Mac whilst eliminating those things that prevented the performance and market-share gains they are looking for.

Now might be a good time to buy that Powerbook, since you’ll have a long wait for the next ones.

—

So, we’ve returned from Door County once again. All of my body parts are sore after what was a very pleasant and marginally stimulating weekend. I swam alot and played on the beach and ate burgers. None of these at the same time. I could’ve bought a car but I didn’t and won’t, and we’ll just see what happens.

I’ve been thinking about doing this for awhile, but then I nev-gnar got around to it. What I’ve realized is that I buy lots of things. This is by no means a bad thing – I still constrain myself to a budget, but at the same time I thought it might be interesting to see if I could go a month without buying things.

I came to this conclusion after returning from Minnesota with 8 shirts, 2 video games and a pair of sandals. Again, all stuff I had pretty much budgeted for, but it just sounds bad.

So here’s the breakdown. I will buy NOTHING in the month of June. Of course, there are exceptions:

• $50 souvenir (books and crap) budget for Door County this weekend
• groceries, rent, and other cost-of-living junk
• dinners (when I say I don’t want to spend money it means no buying clothes or toys more than no outings with friends)

So yeah, there it is. I think it’s totally manageable.
Also, Dr. Mario and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. I know you were wondering.

Back in the day, I remember that Cartoon Network launched Boomerang (“It’s All Coming Back to You”), which they used exclusively to show vintage cartoons. On that note, it could be interesting for them to launch another new network, on which they’d exclusively show superhero shows. I bring this up because I’m in the middle of Justice League Unlimited after watching The Batman and Teen Titans. I like superheroes.

OH YEAH! Saw Revenge of the Sith. Wicked Awesome.

I spend a vast majority of my online time reading. Mostly blogs, the occasional long article that catches my interest, that kind of thing. I think this is generally a good use of my time, but occasionally I make the mistake of reading the comments that follow the article, usually looking to see if anyone else holds the same opinion I do, or if if anyone has interesting points to make. What absolutely floors me is how readily people will either directly criticize the article itself, or the subject of the article, or another person’s comment, or any combination of those three.

I don’t know why this amazes me so much, and at the same time it bothers me. It’s not the fact that the readers have differing opinions – that’s a given. But the mean-spiritedness on so many message boards is really depressing to me. Because I’ve been really watching coverage of them lately, I’m going to bring forward the example of the next-generation consoles launching. There are people who’ve already decided they don’t like the PS3, or the X360, or the Revolution, but they don’t know why. Apparently they’re judging by appearance, and while that certainly plays a part, it’s absolutely not the standard by which consoles should be judged. Honestly, you can’t base most things on appearance, although as a deciding factor it varies in importance.

But it saddens me to see posts proclaiming the PS3 sucks and Sony sucks when they more than likely haven’t even seen it in person, much less played it. If you like the Xbox, you’re an MS fanboy. If you like the PS3, you’re a Sony fanboy. What if you like both? Isn’t that possible? Won’t there be a ton of people (myself included, probably) who own at least two of the next-gen consoles? I don’t have a problem with people who don’t like certain companies. I don’t like certain companies. But if you can offer a solid reason why as opposed to just saying the company sucks, chances are people will respect you a little more and you won’t just be starting arguments for no reason.

Of course, I’m probably just on another one of my naive ramble. That’s not generally how things seem to work on the internet. Creative / constructive criticism is rare – instead it’s just people trying to make others feel that they’re stupid and wrong for liking something (eg “I can’t believe you like the iPod! You’re just another Apple fanboy!1!!!”)

Sometimes I think it would be fun to have some PHP and maybe comments on this page, but the problem is nobody reads it anyway, and they would all be like that one above

So, picked up a couple of games: Star Wars Battlefront, Alien Hominid. I’ve not played the latter, but I can happily say the former is a very enjoyable time-waster. I actually discovered it thanks to the demo disc Sony sent me back in December that I recently revisited (to replay the Prince of Persia 2 demo). But anyway, I like it. Speaking of Prince of Persia, I’ve finished POP: Sands of Time on both the PS2 and the mobile, and I really, really enjoyed them both. I love the acrobatics in Prince of Persia and I’m halfway debating picking up Warrior Within. But Prince of Persia 3 is coming out this winter too, so that’ll be good. Also coming this winter is Sly 3 (yes!).

So yeah, I also took the leap and reserved an Xbox 360. I’ve not really had to debate much about it, since it’s backwards compatible and that’s what really matters to me. It’s more worth it for me to wait and pick up one of those instead of buying an Xbox now. So that will be fun – I’m looking forward to Halo and Half-Life 2. The sad thing is that all the games I’m looking forward to are not next-gen games, but it will be nice to have the option to play them.

The big debate is not whether to get a PS3, so much as when. Unlike the Xbox, I don’t feel the need to buy one at launch, and I may be able to hold off until Rockstar delivers a new GTA (which I am hoping will happen). Vision Gran Turismo is a great launch title, but not something that will make me need the system. Who even knows if the GTA franchise will continue to launch on the Playstation? I mean, I assume it will and now it makes even more sense because of the sheer power the PS3 vs the Xbox (it seems the tables are turned).

What I’m happy about is that now all the new consoles are actually fairly nice looking. The original Xbox was always an eyesore and the PS2 isn’t that great either, but it’s OK. With the new ones it seems like they are intent on removing the "toy" perception. The Revolution looks like a nice little package but I don’t have much interest in it since most of the Nintendo franchises seem to have lost their luster for me. I’ll take Sly Cooper over Mario any day, and I think it’s because they don’t attach his name to random games to sell more, and I hope it stays that way. That’s kind of where Crash and Sonic got derailed also. Originally they were both these really cool and unique games, and once the companies saw they were getting name recognition, they started just slapping the name on everything.

I’ve realized that I haven’t been paying much attention to the portable gaming hardware that’s rapidly becoming more and more amazing. I think the PSP is an awesome little machine, and I’m toying with the idea of getting one. I really can’t make myself spend that much money on it, though, and I know I won’t use it very much because a) I really enjoy console gaming and b) I just don’t have a lot of opportunities to play games when I’m not at home. Again, it’s something I’m considering, but it’s just not a definite like some things are.

I am impressed by the packaging of the Game Boy Micro in the same way I was impressed by the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini. It is cool because it is so small and remains totally functional. I see it doing well if they hit the magical and mythical $49.99 price point, and with the hardware involved, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. At that point it becomes an impulse buy / stocking stuffer type thing, and I think that’s great. At the same time, I don’t see myself replacing my GBASP with it, but then again, I didn’t forsee buying an iPod shuffle either. One word, I’ll repeat it: IMPULSE.

So that was some kind of ramble, I guess, but that’s really the stuff that’s been grabbing my attention lately. I’m excited to see what then next generation of consoles brings us (wireless, for one – that’s pretty cool), and excited to finally have an Xbox , even if it is 6 months away.

Oh yes – shoes.

10 may 2005

I like Apple. I like Honda. Both of these companies are similar in the fact that their customers have a general tendency to be very loyal to them. That’s fine. They are both, I think, deserving of this loyalty as thanks for putting out a good product that works well. That’s why I’ll buy another Honda and I’ll buy another Mac, more than likely without considering their competition.

So, Apple and Honda are both big companies. They both have a lot of customers. That means they both have a lot of products out there, and that means, inevitably, things are not always going to work right. This isn’t a concept that’s limited to Apple and Honda. Every company has this problem; some more than others.

What bothers me is that when something does go wrong, people go out of their way to be as loud as they can about it, proclaiming that the company that wronged them is the worst company ever and they’ll NEVER buy from them again and you should never buy from them or you’ll be SORRY.

Right. Because you had a problem with your minivan, it means every Honda ever made is inevitably defective and you should get rid of yours and never buy another Honda as long as you live or terrible things will happen. That’s not how it works. Your computer is defective. Fine. The store gave you problems with fixing it. Fine. Sorry it happened. If you feel the need to vent on a message board, fine, but don’t expect every person who is a loyal owner of the product you had problems with to suddenly agree with you.

How bout this? Hey, Apple made an mp3 player without a screen! They’re idiots! I hate Apple! They’re all a bunch of hype and lemming zealots! Wait, why do I hate them? Because I don’t own one? Because they’re making technology popular?

What? Honda made a pickup truck? It’s not a real pickup truck because it’s not real 4WD with a full-size bed! They’re idiots! The product is going to flop! It’s ugly. No, wait. Honda made a pickup truck/car kind of combination with the off-road capabilities of a Pilot and an open bed with a built-in locking trunk? How does that not make sense? Is it because Honda felt the need to expand into markets where they saw potential for a profit? Maybe. What about that business move is upsetting?

People are idiots sometimes. And I guess I’m just a Mac-zealot domestic-hating lemming.

I really, really like Family Guy. Paul and I keep talking about it at work and I cannot get over how funny it is. Sunday’s episode was awesome, like they never left.

I have to wonder about American Dad. Is it not as good because it’s basically a copy of Family Guy? If Family Guy didn’t exist would we like American Dad better?

If Family Guy didn’t exist? The horror.

I bought some more hot traxx.

Anyway, good cartoons tonight, I suppose. Family Guy, anyone?

I picked up Songs For Silverman the other day. Big surprise, I really like it. I can’t believe I would like an album by my favorite artist; it just blows me away.

Anyway, it’s on DualDisc. This is the first I’ve seen this and I’m impressed with the features they can cram into a $12 CD. There was a real nice making of/behind the scenes video included, so I’d highly recommend the physical album over the iTMS version.

So welcome to this new(ish) site. Look is majorly different but structure is the same as it ever was. I achieved my goal of not changing the code, so really the whole thing was a big update of CSS and images.

My friend Jodi left our department at work a few weeks ago to move over to marketing. Which means that her position (senior) became available. Which means that I applied for it. Which means that I am now a senior graphic designer. Good, good news.

Did I mention Abe got a new car? I think so.

I picked up THUG 2. It’s OK I suppose.

If I were smart I would’ve written something really witty and clever for today, since people will probably come here, read my 1-line paragraphs, and then be all like "what? No way I’m reading that again…"

But maybe oversimplication is a good thing?

Also, check out Jim’s site. And Abe’s. Big thanks to Paul for his help in making them not broken.

Or, go (back) to the Reboot sites. The CSS one, or Flashland.

I’ve been playing more GTA lately as just a nice way to cool down, and I am enjoying it as much as ever. Everytime I play, though, I start to think about improvements that could be made and things I’d love to see in the next big GTA game. I’m not talking about the PSP version or the PC/XBox releases. I’m thinking the next GTA will be a PS3 release first, following shortly to the next-gen XBox and PC’s. I don’t really know anything about the PS3, except that it will presumably be much better than the PS2, which means that the next GTA will be presumably much better than all others before it.

One of the biggest things I think needs to be addressed is scale. I am thrilled with SA’s massive map, but it still doesn’t seem quite right. Part of this deals with the clock in GTA – each realtime minute = one hour of game time. That works out fine for now, but it doesn’t take me half an hour to walk across a parking lot, does it? I’d like to see more of a shift toward realtime in this area – not always running time like Animal Crossing has, but you pick up where you left off, just like you do now. Maybe there could be some sort of time shift mode so you don’t have to actually wait for hours to do a mission, but I don’t know, because of the speed of the current clock things always feel pretty rushed.

The other part of scaling is actual size. I’d like to see whatever environments they develop be much, much more expansive. I want literal miles in the game, something where it actually *could* take you an hour to get from one city to another by car, which would really justify driving to the airport and getting a plane instead. With this there also needs to be a more definite feeling of different speeds for different cars. It’s very fun right now, but feels like I can hop in any car and pretty much get the same result.

Speaking of cars, let’s talk about traffic: calm it the hell down! Everything is so herky-jerky right now. Cars don’t move like that in real life – everything is more gradual. I think this deals with scale again, to make you feel like you’re moving faster than you are, but with a bigger and more realistic map, and different timing, the cars could finally move at a normal pace. Which is not “as fast as they possibly can” on the highway.

Those are the biggest concerns and you can see they all stem from one thing. Everything else I am hoping for (better character models, better car models with non-generic damage, etc) are things that I will not be surprised to see debut on the next-gen GTA. I am just hoping that R* can work on the scale issue because the franchise will become an even more immersive experience.

Suffice it to say this week has been a fairly busy one for me. I’ve had a lot going on at work, not that that’s a bad thing. I called about two cars this week but both were sold by the time I’d called.

Speaking of cars and the people who buy them, ABE has aquired a van. It’s a Ford E250, nothing fancy. Solid white with no windows, and he’ll use it to transport sound things. I’m thinking we’ll be talking to a friend of ours who does vinyl stuff for perhaps some graphics to put on it.

That leaves you wondering what will become of the Element, probably. Well, it’s getting ebay’ed. Soon. Which means he’ll be needing another car, which at this point is looking like an Accord. Yes, because we need another one. That will be an Accord for each of us, although my current used dream car is an early to mid 90′s Prelude Si or VTEC, in white, black, or perhaps red. For cheap.

Lessee. I watched Con Air because it was on TV. Same goes for Van Wilder. Ryan Reynolds is hot.

Ah yes, Paul has some things on his site now. He is also not moving away, so yay for that.

I guess I should be posting since you know, it’s April and all. We were in the Twin Cities briefly and then we came back but with a third iPod (mini, 4GB, green). Fun times.

I almost came home with another camera but now I didn’t. I’d love to find a camera with all camera controls given their own, um, controls. I’m kind of bored with contextual menus.

Things are happening but what are they?

There was this one time I was making oatmeal (the instant kind) and I put it in the microwave. Then I took it out and realized that I forgot to add water to it. So really putting it in the microwave didn’t do much good.

We’re back from the Rhinelander where I spent 10% of my time preaching the Honda gospel and the rest just having a generally nice time. The kid is mobile now which is quite impressive. We clocked him and I think he’s capable of 50 mph easy. We also got to be in his presence when he had his first-ever Home Depot experience.

I forgot to mention that I saw the new Jetta in person on the Thursday and I’m generally happy with it, the only downside being the price. On the subject of finally seeing new cars in person, the Honda dealership in Rhinelander had a Ridgeline as well, which I’m pleased to say is way, way nicer than I imagined. I really genuinely like it, and Abe did too, so I wouldn’t be overly surprised if that was his next car.

Actually, it’s not anything close to how it sounds. Well, kind of it is, maybe. We are off to Rhinelander this morning to visit Abe’s brother. I can just hear you now: “Rhinelander?!?!?!? I thought he lived in Minocqua?” Well it’s true. He did. Now he doesn’t–they don’t. So they’re in the process of moving and we are going to help since they extended us the courtesy last year. It will be a fun-ass time.

Abe was working last night so I went and rented Hellboy and The Punisher. I think I liked The Punisher more but that could just be because it was the first one I watched. They were both well-done and that’s pretty much the same thing I say about every movie, only because I pretty much only watch movies I like.

Speaking of Abe, if one was to look here they might see his name, and then that one, if they were smart, could figure out one of the other two sites I’m working on for the aforementioned here. Coherency is for fools.

I keep trying to remember to write about something and then I forget what it is so then I’m just screwed, I guess.

PS. From now on I will not be linking to the free Tuesday song in iTunes because I am lazy. Just assume I have it. Also, you are more than capable of finding it if you use iTMS, and if you don’t, then it really doesn’t matter anyway.

Actually, I pretty much almost never wear them; they are confined to the glove compartment of my car. It was bright outside today, so I actually put them on. I had nearly forgotten how gorgeous things look through amber tinting.

I’ve also realized that despite the fact that we have two cats, I don’t say much about them. On both occasions, I was too busy to say much more than “we got a cat” and so it was left at that.

So let’s start with Maynard. He’s three point five years old and is 15 pounds of pure pretty-kittiness. He doesn’t purr much but he always looks content until you rile him up and he bites you. Then after that he is content again. He’s not into table scraps unless it’s tuna, and he yells at you when you take a shower. Then when that doesn’t work he splashes his paw in the water dish and gets it all over the floor. He’s also beneficial in that instead of owning a paper shredder, we can just throw a piece in front of him and it will be shredded in no time.

Bender is a different story. He’s much more into attention than Maynard and that could be because he was a stray where as Maynard was a surrender. He only has a stub of a tail but this doesn’t seem to affect him – he just keeps himself happy by attacking Maynard’s. He is particularly interesting in that he will pretty much lay down where ever. You could pick him up so he’s laying on your hands, and then put him on the bed, and he will not move. He sleeps in the bathroom sink. He’s also much more vocal than Maynard; not only with purring – he’ll randomly make noise to let you know that he’s still there and could you come find him please?

Together they are the best pair I’ve ever seen, as good as any pair from the same litter than I’m aware of. They can change from licking eachother to wrestling in a split second and the ruckus they create when chasing eachother down the stairs is tremendous. I think Maynard is especially happy to have a companion since we were gone daily for work and he had nothing else to do, and I’m glad we were able to adopt Bender because he is such a wonderful cat.