BLOG SPEAKS
this is blog
eric has not been around
i am lonely
he must be busy
maybe he'll visit me soon
and i can be full of information
he calls "luscious"
or even pretty pictures

maybe i will just fight crime


- posted by Pootenheimer @ 11:56 PM | 3 comments

 
No free time
Ugh, no real free time. At least not enough to blog properly. So much has been happening! Actually, it's mainly in the gaming world. It's a sudden flood of everything that is good in gaming.

So the big thing for me lately is that I replaced my XBox. Finally. I did it on the 15th, which happens to be the XBox's third birthday. Happy birthday to my first XBox! Three years retarded! Well, it was good to start and then just sort of lost its way along its path. So I got the new box, which means my gaming can go online again. XBox Live. Which is good and bad. It's good, oh it's very good. You get a headset and you can sit there gaming with other nerds, playing splendid games (DOA Ultimate, Burnout 3, and of course, Halo 2), all the while talking trash or even about other things. I met some cool people playing Burnout, some of my friends play Halo so I can talk with them and play, a lot of fun. The bad? Yes, there is a bad. Loss of SLEEP. Omigoodness yes. I thought I'd check online last night, see who was up (you have a friends list, and you can see if they're on and what they're playing), and thought I'd pop in for a quick game of Halo 2. Yeah, right. A quick two hour game. That I started after one in the morning. So yes, another night of lost sleep. Oh, it was good, but I am feeling it now.

Yeah, and the weekend was crazy busy, too. Not as bad as the weekend before, but pretty busy. Plenty of time at kung fu. It was testing this weekend, so I had to be there to help out, even though I'm not testing yet. Then I went to check out what testing was like at Sandra's taekwondo school. It was interesting, although I honestly think the boards they break are much thinner than ours. Most of their breaks looked more like warmup breaks to me, but maybe I'm just crazy when I break boards. It looked like I could probably break five or six of theirs with the force I normally break two, with my kicks. I need to see where they get them so I can test that out.

And I did give a guitar lesson on Saturday, which was quite interesting. I haven't taught in a while, hopefully I still have some ability there. It was interesting, though - her guitar is a miniature Martin, a left-handed one. So it was different than what I'm used to, but it's still a guitar.

Ah, and church, as usual. Went fairly well, to my recollection. I really have just a haze of memory right now, my sleep is WAY behind. And I'm worried, because Half-Life 2 was released yesterday. Yes, I got it. And I got Carlos a copy (which I pre-purchased for him over a year ago), so I took it over and we installed it, he checked it out. I'll just put it this simply: the game is incredible. It really looks like it's everything people might have expected, and as far as a single-player experience goes, this easily goes into the group of top games of all time. It's an experience. Very easy to lose time in the world there, which makes me worry for my sanity and sleep. I just need to hold off until Thanksgiving...

So yeah, a lot of that has meant not as much time for blogging. But I need to blog! And I've poked at it today here and there, so it took a while, but I have to go now. I'll leave a random link before I go. A warning about this one - it's rather intensive and does crazy things with your browser, but it's worth seeing. What is it? Halo 2's official site, of course.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 1:34 PM | 3 comments

 
Halo 2, and all that that entails
Ah, Halo. It's rather good. And Halo 2 is kind of good, too. I finished the sequel two nights ago, and as many reviews have hinted, the ending is... different. Although there's an interesting little extra bit after the credits. And multiplayer is glorious, everything it should be. Good times to be had with a few of your friends, as you shout in frustration at the other people on your team (connected from other parts of the country) who apparently have no idea of what they're supposed to be doing. "What's this button do? Oh, it opens this large gate right next to our flag, that we're trying to protect. The enemy would be able to drive full vehicles in, and capture our flag much more easily. That doesn't matter, I like pushing buttons!" Yeah.

The single player experience is excellent, as well, although finishing the game does not require observation of all the details and intricacies the design team put effort into creating. No, and in fact, it can be much easier when you have enemies being concerned more with each other (that's all I'll say about that) to just walk right through. In Halo 2, only a few points require you to actually worry about defeating certain enemies. The rest of the time, you can usually just take a walk to the next point of the level. Or a ride. Or fly. I'll probably go back through on a harder difficulty and take more time having fun fighting enemies. I still prefer multiplayer for future play, though. And jacking vehicles adds extra fun.

So that's taken up a lot of my week, yeah. That, and watching some of the extras on the bonus DVD that comes with the special edition (only $5 more, if you plan on getting Halo 2 and can find it, get it instead, it's definitely worth it). Some scenes made me laugh. One being the one that showed close-ups of gamers watching in awe the demo being played at E3, in slow motion, as Hoobastank's The Reason played. Another being the sound test they included. Even if you don't have a full surround system, it's worth watching, although it IS a little better with surround.

I do have to mention the purchase experience. I got mine at EB Games (I think that's what it is now - it used to be Software, Etc., and a long, long time ago it was Babbage's) at Woodland, where way too many people got theirs. There was a big-screen TV set up, and two lines. The release was at midnight, and I got there at around 11:20 or so. The two lines were for people who had pre-ordered, separated into those who had fully paid, and those who had yet to finish paying. The latter had about ten to fifteen people in it. And the fully paid line? A couple of hundred. When I got there. I kid you not. It started at EB, wrapped around the rail, and just kept going and going. I got pictures, even though when I got there, a security guard saw me taking and said I couldn't do that. He didn't know why, but he said his boss said no cameras. So later, as the line grew (and it grew much longer), I couldn't stand having a camera and not capturing this crazy event, so I went and found the head of security. He was nice. Turns out the reason no cameras are allowed in the mall is not for copyright worries or anything like that, but more because of an event that occurred a few years ago in September. I guess having photos of the mall gives you that much more power when trying to do something bad, and so you'd better not allow it at all. Ugh. But he knew we were all just big nerds, so he let us use them. Yay! And I have pictures. I need to convert them to web-usable size, but I'll post them up sometime later. And maybe a link to the videos I got, too. Yes, I got videos.

I did get Thursday off to recover from all the sleep I've been missing, for Veteran's Day. So I planned on staying up all night Wednesday to beat Halo 2. Turns out I only needed a couple more hours (I started around midnight), and finished at 2. I figured, hey, I have all night, so why not pop in the DVD? I did, and started watching, and passed out about ten minutes into it. So I woke up around forty minutes later and then decided I should probably go ahead and go to sleep. And sleep I did! Yes, indeed. Until 3:freakin30 in the afternoon. I guess I needed the sleep. It was good, though. I somehow felt rested after waking up. I got my kung fu in this week, too. Some good self-defense going on, although I didn't get to spar, which is a little disappointing. More tonight, as people gear up for our tests tomorrow. I may or may not test, depending on if I finish learning my form tonight. We'll see.

Since yesterday was a holiday (sort of), nobody's here at work today. It's quiet. So it's just a bit more leisurely of a Friday, and then the weekend. Yay! I hope it's a good one. I hope you have a good one, too. So I'll leave you with a random link. Want to know why I like Halo so? Do you think it's just about shooting things? It's got a much more intelligent foundation than most people think. It helps if you've had some exposure to the storyline - if you have, you can appreciate this.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 1:27 PM | 0 comments

 
Crazy full weekend
Sometimes you have calm weekends, not a lot going on. Then you have the other ones. Where you're supposed to get R&R, but you end up having so much happening you're exhausted when it's all over. Yeah, that was this weekend, for me. But it was GOOD.

Yeah, so Thursday was a pretty light day, although it was so long ago now, it feels like forever. FOREVAH. Standard stuff - work and kung fu. Kung fu was cool, we did sword sparring. Sadly, Justin and I were reserved for judging and didn't get to spank the newbies. It was still pretty fun. I think everyone liked it. Friday started slowly, and I went to go to kung fu to handle the massive crowds. Massive crowds of me and only me. Hey, I think I could be considered to be a massive crowd. It was kind of sad - I just stretched, and read, and fell asleep, and answered the phone, and left. Not too much. But from there, it was time for guitar at Newman. The Catholic Student Convention was this weekend, and it was pretty big. Tons of college kids (75, to be more specific). So Friday was the first night.

For Friday the choir was put up to be background music for an hour of adoration. So we set up, and actually a lot of the music ended up being only guitars and choir, and a couple of songs were just piano, and one was harp (quite cool). We did some very good songs, and I think everyone liked it. It was a lot of fun. And then we got to one of my favorite songs, in the middle of which something unexpected happened. I wish I could say something like "I burst into this AWESOME solo and the crowd stood up and started roaring for more" but it was more like "a string broke". Yeah, that's right, one of my guitar stings broke. AGAIN. The same one that broke last time (first - I did have two break before I restrung it). In the freakin' middle of a song. So I managed to keep playing without missing a beat, although it was a little unsettling. Thankfully, it's a twelve-string, so the pressure involved means it didn't really go too out of tune. We managed to keep things going okay, I got it retuned, and everything else went fairly well. We got a lot of complements for the music, which was cool.

After that it was time to go to the best place on Earth for food (if you're only allowed to eat at once place on Earth) - Village Inn! We invaded it, basically, with something like thirty people. It was a lot of fun, though. Crazy stories, a game of spin the ketchup bottle going on at the one booth some people had, and actual consumption of edible things. It was good.

So, sleep for a bit, then waking up earlier than I would normally have awakened to do something different. Paintball! It's been over a year since I've been. I did miss it a lot. It was tons of fun. Me and Carlos and a few other guys went and played against some Army boys, and basically annihilated them on the field. I've been gone too long, though, my bunkering (rushing to touch a bunker to make somebody out) skills are lacking. It's okay, I'll probably be going back again this month. Yay!

So I came back from that, moderately exhausted. What's next? Well, FOOD first, of course, as Carlos and I fought the urge to phase out into brain mush from being tired, and then a workshop. What kind of workshop? A Chinese wrestling workshop! Yay! I don't remember how to spell it, but it's pronounced [shwhy-jiow], and it's good stuff. We had a visiting instructor (who actually has a major article in this month's Inside Kung-Fu) teach us. We learned how to fall, how to take someone down, how to hip throw properly. The art is about 5000 years old, so it's been around quite long. Apparently there are stone carvings portraying some of the techniques, which is cool. But this is where judo and jujitsu got their roots. Although I kind of like this better. So a lot of getting tossed around for three hours or so.

From there, it was time to party! My friend James is getting older, so it was an excuse to gather all sorts of mischevious people and party. It was pretty fun. And Libby's learning how to mix drinks well, apparently. I was pretty tired, so I didn't stay too long. I ended up randomly talking to a friend for a bit before going to bed, then slept HARD.

And I had to get up early again, of course. To go back to Newman and do music for a mass with the Bishop. The Bishop and I see each other quite a bit, apparently. The music was pretty good, except my voice was all in the bass range so I couldn't hit any of the proper higher notes, which was funny. But everything else turned out okay. And a bunch of the convention students gathered to go eat at Pepper's afterwards. Good food, although it made my belly rumbly.

From there it was time for - what else? Kung fu! Yes, to instructor training, where it was just me, Justin, and Sifu (and Justin's grandfather, egging us on). To purely learn. I have one side of my sparring set practiced completely, now. I have to finish the second side, which should be faster, and I should be good to test. Which will be very good. It was different, because I was purely doing the set with Sifu, and when you practice with him, there somehow a bit more urgency that you do everything fast and you do it RIGHT. But it was good practice.

So yeah, I was exhausted after that, and basically laid down on my couch after that and passed out. Then time to get up again and go BACK to church, for another mass. And this one went quite well! My voice was back a little better, although we had some close calls with our music sheets somehow moving away from the music stand and the books they were in being CLOSED. But we made it through somehow. Although I had a part of my guitar fall off in the middle of mass, which just makes me wonder. My guitar is probably getting more attention than it needs. Maybe it's a cry for help. It wasn't too important of a part (a washer on the head), so it was okay.

Bleah. I still haven't recovered my sleep, so I'm quite tired. BUSY weekend. And tonight's not any better. Tonight. Midnight. HALO 2. I've got my copy purchased. Do you? I'm scared to even play it, because I may end up not going to bed. Yeah, I'm a big nerd, so what. I like being a nerd! It's fun. You should let go of your pride sometime and try it out. It's good stuff. I'll have to tell you the verdict once I get a taste of its luscious goodness.

But in the meantime, it's off to other things. So I'll give you your random link now. Since it is the eve of a major, major release, I thought it'd be good to provide a means to be educated. There's lots of places to find reviews, and what games are good and which are not. But if you want a place to start, this would be as good a place as any.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:22 PM | 1 comments

 
My blog I've missed you
Haven't blogged in a few days. It's been an interesting few days, I guess. The weekend! It was the end of the month, and All Hallow's Eve, and all that. What'd you do for Halloween? Well, I went to the Freaker's Ball, on Saturday. For a while. And it was interesting. I thought about a variety of things, but lacking makeup and piercings, I couldn't do anything too crazy to fit in, so I just got decked out in my military garb (purchased from the surplus for paintball), including combat boots. And it seemed like a lot of people there went all out. There was probably more flesh visible than necessary, but that's expected. There were several bands, although I didn't get to see too many of them. I did see one very bad band with the vocalist being one of the guys in charge of the ball (his only qualification to sing) who liked to swing the mic around by the cable. Three guitarists, all playing Gibsons. It wasn't TOO bad, but it was not good. And the last band I remember quite well. They're called the Red Stripes, they do covers of White Stripes stuff, moderately well. The reason they're so memorable is because the vocalist/guitarist is 14, the drummer (his sister) is 9. I somehow got to stand in the front, next to what I believe was their mother. She kept jumping up and down (not in rhythm) and cheering madly. It was a lot of fun, though. They were actually really good, and a few of their songs I really thought were cool.

So yeah, all that, and then a costume contest at the end. The winners ended up being (from third to first) a very tall Howard Stern imitation, two women dressed as a nurse and something else in black (who gathered applause by applying generous helpings of spankings and saliva exchange), and first place, who I thought was cool - dressed as a One Night Stand. He had a big cardboard box on, with arm holes and a head hole, and a lamp on one corner, with a pack of cigarettes sitting on another corner. It was pretty funny. He got $500 for it.

Eh, I smelled like smoke afterwards, but it was still fun. And Sunday was actually Halloween! But I didn't do anything too scary. I actually took a nap, which is sort of scary. And there was church, where me being sick made my voice sort of a gamble to sing, but we had a couple of very good songs. It was fun. And then I hung out with Sandra a bit, since she was in town for the weekend, and we chilled and made a fire. I like fireplaces.

Yeah, I smelled like smoke afterwards, but this time it was a GOOD smell. So Monday I took off, partly for finishing recovery of being sick, partly to take care of some bills and cleaning around the apartment, but it turned out to be okay. I'm almost back to normal now, just don't have all my voice back. I did also do some recording, and I might share it with you, but the vocals on it I think might actually be better without me being sick, so I might wait to re-record that part. It's a cover song, not my own, but it was spontaneous and fun.

And naturally, some kung fu, as well. Teaching another Mexican who speaks more Spanish than English, so my Spanish is getting more practice than it has in a long time. And yesterday it was me, Justin, and ONE other guy. I guess the whole election thing got everyone too distracted to get physically active in productive ways. So I actually got to learn more than I have in a long time! I've almost finished another form, another sparring set. Hopefully I'll be able to test soon. Sparring was a little with the new guy, who hasn't really sparred yet. He learned a bit, but he seems quite excited to get to do it more. Then it was me and Justin, no pads. That was a lot of fun. I think I gave him a good workout, and he didn't actually lay into me too badly. I hit him almost as much as he hit me! And I think he hurt his fingers a little when he smacked me in the ribs. ARRR my ribs must be hard. Although he did do a weird downward slap which was basically just to close my eyes, and it worked way too well. Sometimes when you try unexpected things, they work extremely well, only to be realized afterwards. This can apply to many things, and can be both good AND bad. In this case it was more FUNNY.

So now it's a sleepy day, time for choir practice tonight. Sleepy 'cause it's rainy. And rainy is sleepy. Maybe I'll light another fire tonight, sit by the fire and play me some GTA before Halo 2 arrives. Oh! Some things coming up to be excited about, yay! The Catholic Student Convention is coming to Newman this year, which means something like seventy students will be spending the weekend on campus. The choir will be helping with music a bit, so that might be fun. Maybe get to do some songs we don't often do. And the other thing I just found out about yesterday - not until March, but it would be too sweet. I'll only say if I do it, it'll be the first time I've ever traveled overseas. And I really want to do it. More on that some other time.

And it's time to get back to work, doing a variety of things, although it's pretty slow and quiet here, fitting with the weather. And I have a random link! I got it from a friend - I thought it would be fitting with today's events.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:03 PM | 3 comments