Friday, January 28, 2005

Fryeday
I beat Resident Evil 4, last night (no spoilers). I actually had a harder time with the part right after the last boss than the last boss itself. I had a really huge stock of herbs though, so I felt pretty safe.

I'm excited because not only is it Friday, but I get to see Modest Mouse for the 100th time today in town. I don't even have to drive to Portland! It is sold out in a much smaller venue than the last few times I saw them, but it should be fun even if its crammed full. Good live music is worth it.

I also found out that the Blood Brothers are playing in town, which I think I might go to see also. They aren't exactly what I'd call good, but should be fun live for the pure noisiness.
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Wednesday
I've been a little obsessed with Resident Evil 4 for gamecube for a while now, but one of the other things that I'm completely stoked about (had to throw in the surfer lingo) is the Final Fantasy: Advent Children movie from Square-Enix. Final Fantasy 7 was my first Playstation game and the reason I bought the system in the first place. SNES FFII was the last one I had played at that point, and VII was a quantum leap ahead of that. The story and characters were definitely a lot cooler than what they had managed to pull off in 8 and 9 too. Its funny how great I thought the graphics and cutscenes were compared to where they have taken them since.

In pops up Advent Children, which will probably only make sense to people who played the game and liked it enough to remember a lot of it. Its kind of sad that its not an actual videogame, but after seeing three trailers for it I don't mind at all. If by some chance you haven't seen them, you can get them here on the Japanese site: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dvd/ff7ac/

You don't need to know any Japanese to navigate it. If nothing else, the computer animation blows away any other attempt. I thought the animatrix stuff looked great, but this fits a little better because the characters themselves are sort of an anime style which lends itself better to being animated (go figure). The days of shiny, obvious CG are long gone so it seems, besides the shitty use of it in TV commercials and bad cartoons.

Advent Children looks amazingly cool, but its still frustrating because there is no release date, and we've known about this movie for a long long time. I've heard rumors that it might be released in the US and Japan at the same time, but if its Japan first I'm definitely going to buy it as an import (as long as its subtitled).

I still wish someone would remake FF7, maybe as a gamecube exclusive in the vein of Twin Snakes.

This thread reminds me of Reboot. Anyone ever watch it?
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Edited email I just sent (man I should just use the phone)
Andy's Site

The website has vastly improved, and I put up some new pics if you are bored.


I think that the problem with me is that I don't honestly ever really think about where I will be in 2 or 5 years of when I graduate. I don't really work that way. I know I married Rachael and I feel pretty good about that, so I figure whatever happens, happens. I'm really not the planning type; on car trips or in life decisions. It seems to work out for me, but then when someone asks me important questions like where do I want to live or do I want kids I don't really have much of an answer, so I kind of have to think about it on the spot. It leads to a lot of I dunno's.

So basically I'm probably always going to suck at planning because I don't like to worry about those kind of things. Stressing about things a year or more on the horizon just isn't worth it to me, there will be plenty of time for that when it happens. I don't care one lick about money, loans, houses and any sort of life standard. I'm able to be happy with my life because of my wife, and thats all I really need besides the occasional videogame or toy. Honestly I could care less whether or not we have a big house or a small house, an apartment for life or a castle. We don't need anything like that to be happy, I just look back at how much fun it was to live in the servants quarters in back of a house. Its just a matter of surrounding yourself with convenience. I'm not going to be any more happy with life if I have a big kitchen. I would like one, but its not really a big issue. Thats how I see it.

Sorry about all the ranting.
Andy
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Monday, January 24, 2005

Monday
Ah, I've made my contribution to the Nifty Fifty for what its worth, and very suprisingly saw myself mentioned once. I didn't even have to call myself nifty so I'm happy.

I've also done some ultra remedial HTML stuff today, and have my very own wee little website: Andy's Site

Its fun to fool around with, so I'm going to try to pursue it, and maybe have some pictures uploaded. I'll link it again and let y'all know if that happens.

I've been rocking RE4, but to switch it up rented Killzone for the PS2. I would not recommend it to non FPS fans. I liked Metroid Prime, and have played most of the Medal of Honor games but am not really a big FPS fan otherwise. Its an OK game, but mostly I found myself wondering where the hell my squadmates were, and spending a lot of time aiming instead of running around haphazardly and blasting stuff like I like to do. Its looking like a one day rental, I'll go back to RE.

Speaking of, Regenerators....man do they suck and thats all I have to say other than the fact that they scare the pee into my now soiled pants.


Edit: I put up some pictures of me in fancy gear when I got married and a very current one of me and my pal Ying.
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Sunday, January 23, 2005

Touchdown Pittsburg
Just chillin at home tonight, watching waaay too much football, but the second to last game of the year is on soI shouldn't feel too bad about my sloth. My cat seems pretty ok, which is very good.

I get to see Modest Mouse yet again this coming Friday, a week after hearing a "Kidz Bop" version of Float on on the television. I thought it was weird to hear a song off the last album on a minivan commerical, but thats just nuts. Well hopefully they get a lot of money and can live out my dream of being in a band for a living.

Been playing Resident Evil 4, and have just finally gotten to the second disc. Its a pretty long game, especially since I thought that the castle was going to be the last area in the game. One thing I'm really relizing is how important the rocket launcher is. It really does wonders against the bosses in the game. I won't spoil anything, but the boss fights are pretty tough until you figure out the trick to beat them. Not super frustrating though.

Tom Brady just got sacked.

The DC comics encyclopedia is really fun. It has pretty much every obscure DC character with a bio. I keep it around when I watch Justice League, and can read up on weird characters they use like B'wana beast, Pow wow Smith and Booster Gold.

Later!
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Friday, January 21, 2005

Super whammy
I guess I had been lucky up to this point because my cat "Tiddy" doesn't really throw up too much compared to cats I have had before. Man did that all change last night/this morning. Starting at about 1am my poor kitty starting throwing up on the hour. Food, less food then frothy liquid and finally pink frothy liquid. It was pretty scary, and we took her to the vet as soon as they opened (7am). I stayed, but rachael had to go take her car in to be fixed, which we had scheduled before. Doctor guy couldn't find anything wrong so they kept my kitty so that they could do extra expensive X-rays, since we figured she swallowed something weird and was trying to hoark it up. Turns out the tests were negative as I find out just now.

The real killer was while I was waiting there to get picked up a couple came in with a cat who had stopped breathing. They were crying, and I saw them take in a fluffy orange cat. eventually they left with a box... When I told my wife about that one I cried too. Its pretty emotional at that damn vet place, lots of sick animals. I hadn't actually cried in years but I got me one hell of a soft spot for cats. I just hope mine is ok, we get to take her home after work.

Other nicknames for my cat:

Tibby
Tiddy
TT-Bear
Tibs Tiddenmeier
Chairman Meow
T.D.
Kibby
Nipsy Russel
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Thursday, January 20, 2005

In awe gyer ate yun
Well the Bush II has been officially put into the second term. We are led by a born again christian who is happy with the thought that whatever happens in this world he will ascend to heaven. So does he really give a shit what happens to the environment, the world, the non-christians who are going to hell by the standards of his faith?

On a lighter note, South Park last night had weird genderless people come back in time from future america to get jobs. Somehow it managed to end up with a huge pile of men having gay sex, which I guess is the natural solution to immigration from the future.
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Stuff
Its been a pretty slow weekend, with an added day thanks to MLK. I did see a lot of movies though. Rented Zatoichi: the blind swordsman, then saw I "Heart" Huckabees at the cheap theatre which was very good. Last night I went and saw the House of Flying Daggers which was also very good. It was a little heavier on the story compared to Hero, which is both good and bad. Its better to have a good story, but I could watch a whole movie of wire flying Kung Fu action without getting bored. I've also gotten pretty far into Resident Evil 4, where I can control the Pres' daughter Ashley in a helpless sort of way. Quite a few plot twists but I won't spoil any of it for the benefit of those of you playing it.

Monday I went into my favorite record store which I found out was closing down for good, and that really sucks. There was an article in the paper about them where they said that since they are next to campus their primary customers are students, who of course are more and more focused on downloading rather than buying from CD stores. They tried to stay afloat by focusing on indie records, which cater more towards the actual buyers of music but I guess that only lasted so long. I don't really like my other options out here, so it really sucks to see them fail. Also it is 5 minutes from the Chemistry building which provides for a nice break every once in a while.

So after being depressed by the nearly cleared out CD store I popped into the school store and bout the "Big Idea" issue of Adbusters. Its in my opinion one of the best sources of information for things that news glosses over or won't cover. The magazine as a whole has really advanced far beyond the old "advertising is evil" thing and is pretty smart. I'm only a couple of pages in and already some good stuff. Krispy Kreme having a deal with an elementary school for a free donut for every A on the kids report card. Thankfully some people freaked out about this and there is a great quote from a school board official calling it the fast track to childhood obesity or something.

Excerpt:

Don’t stumble. Don’t fall. Lose your mental stride and you’ll end up depressed, bipolar or schizophrenic. You could wake up in a post-war mental ward feeling like your whole past is a hazy dream. And believe it, there are millions out there who know the story: gradually your motivation dims, your sleep becomes disturbed, and you lose clarity of mind. Then you’re in big fucking trouble, for there’s a threshold here, and once you’ve crossed over it’s tough as hell getting back. Sometimes meds help, or even institutionalization, but more often than not you become dependent on the drugs, and then there’s a second monkey on your back.

So how do you keep your mental life from crashing? Start by knowing what you’re up against. When Mexican immigrants arrive in the US, they are not as well-off as Americans, but their rates of mental dysfunction are considerably lower. Within a decade’s time, however, their problems with depression, anxiety and addiction nearly double, to the same levels as the general American population (about 32 percent).

These are the dangers of a toxic culture. Denying them won’t do you any good. What will help are simple things like not living alone and keeping close contacts with family and friends. Live more fully, live in the moment, live more slowly and live more locally. In the meantime, consider injecting your life with extra meaning by joining the mental-ecology movement.

To win the battle of the mind, we need nothing short of a mobilization on par with the ecology movement of the ‘60s. That movement began by redefining the meaning of nature. No longer was it viewed as just a playground for development and resource extraction, but as a living system of which we are a part. We mental environmentalists must launch a similar movement.

If we don’t, one morning we will wake up in a never-ending schizo dream.

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Thursday, January 13, 2005

Head a splodin'
Picked up Resident Evil 4 last night from EB games, and it came with a DVD with making of stuff which was nice. Its really very different from any other game in the series in terms of gameplay. Its nice to not be caught up in camera tricks.

Its a lot of fun. The first section I died a few times, mostly at the hands of the chainsaw guy, til I got the hang of how to deal with villagers a little better. Its really a bad idea to hang around in any of the houses for very long. You are not really punished for getting killed though, which is good. In any other RE game you would have to go back to your box and re-pick up the chess peices and solve a puzzle over and all this crap that would make me want to quit. Here you just have to come up with a better plan of attack to waste some villiagers etc. Ammo is fairly plentiful as long as you don't go nuts with it, you can actually buy stuff which is a fun new thing and upgrade weapons. I could have bought a rocket launcher but didn't want to sacrifice my shotgun for space. You can still explode peoples heads even though they're not zombies, but taking them down isn't as easy, headshots aren't quick killers except with the shotgun. Actually I'm finding it more useful to go for the legs.
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

I usually don't get pissed off too easily but...
This guy I'm working with is totally useless. I'm basically responsible for him, training and helping with stuff but I think that 99% of everything I say to him bounces off. He'll listen to me then pretty much fail to apply any of my ideas and usually end up fucking shit up. Normally this wouldn't be much of a big deal but in a chemistry lab almost everything you work with is either expensive, dangerous or both. Today was the last straw when he used the NMR incorrectly, in a way that 9 times out of 10 will break it and cost thousands of dollars. I'm sure that nobody knows what an NMR is but its basically the same thing as an MRI, just built to put small samples in and not people. I could deal with everything to this point no problem, and I'm pretty easy going but now I'm just totally pissed and don't want to deal with him anymore. Luckily my advisor isn't his #1 fan either because he misses all of our scheduled meetings as well which isn't exactly what you want to do when trying to make an impression.

At least I can go get RE4 and blast the shit out of some evil townspeople or whatever to take out my repressed aggression.
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