Okay, rules:
1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get youranswer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG TITLE DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY ITSOUNDS!

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS, "IS THIS OKAY," YOU SAY?
Three - enduro
Yes, three look fat in those pants.

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
eyes getting bleepy - severed heads
Maybe I need a digital nap.

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Crime Spree - MC Frontalot
Wow, it's like my iTunes knows what's in my soul!

4)HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Just let go - Fischerspooner
Yeah, i'm a bit obsessed at the moment.

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Pyramid Song - Radiohead
Well, we were bound to hit a spooky one at some point!

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Freezepop Forever! - freezepop!
Yay for funny.

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
I am the lamb - Low
uh...whah?

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Loose Ends - Imogen Heap
two words...knitting circle

9) WHAT IS 2+2
It's allright - Eurythmics
which is surprising since i hate arithmetic...1+1, hot. 2+1, also possibly hot.

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Happy House - Siouxsie atb
true

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Tighten Up - YMO
not sure how to...

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Optimised - skinny puppy
whoa, i wish

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Pocket full of rainbows - YMO
Yes, I'm training to be a leprechaun, did the green suit, and pot of gold give it away?

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Surefireway - bass211.mashuptown
cuz i can't and i won't stop

15) WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Showroom Dummies - Senor Coconut
now i'm sad and creeped out...but only cuz of the sex doll pile in the closet

16) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
J'ai Dormi Sous L'eau - Air
Beautiful

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Sexual High - go home productions
Necrophiliacs rejoice! On a more serious note...please don't let this come true

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Is It Really So Strange? - The Smiths
My favorite so far.

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Girl Anachronism - Dresden Dolls
okay, so i'm a drama queen

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Boulevard of Broken Songs - mashuptown
finish your stories!

When leaving Australia I had several countdown consumable items in stock; Shampoo, toothpaste, cookies, alchohol. It became a sort of race. Though at times it seemed like the shampoo had been the predictor all along. Leaving vancouver it was bar soap and energy bars. The one countdown item I have this time is pickles. There are two pickles left...and two days to go.
It occured to me while packing my computer that it's somewhat sad that I have a routine for packing most items in my apartment. Not only is it routine, but it is fast. I have kept the original packing for most of my electronics, computer, and kitchen appliances so I don't have to muddle about figuring out how many linens to stuff in the box with the coffee maker. I think it took less than three hours to ready all of my stuff for the movers.
It's mostly sad that I didn't really get a chance to explore Washington DC at all. The winter was cold and foreboding and I kept thinking, "Check stuff out in the spring!" Silly me.

=me

Okay, So I just got back from a first date with a like minded atheist. I cannot believe how opposite we are. She's self admittedly not very technologically hip. When we sat down she said, "I spied on you on the internet." Anyone I know would have said, "I googled you." It's not really spying if it's public knowledge. I mean, if she found any of the pornos I've starred in, it would be a fair cop and not "spying" at all.
She's so soft spoken that I can barely hear her. Without even trying she could pull a "sphinctersayswhat" on me, and even then I'd ask her to repeat it several times.
I think the thing that bothers me about her though is that she's so incredibly passive that it just becomes inefficient. An example of this would be us entering a book store. Up to this point the crowds or lack thereof had allowed me to easily sweep past her and open the door. We were approaching the door; the crouds of people were building up on either side of us. The narrow, two lane wide entrance of the store had as many people crowding out of it as in. So we were effectively headed along our single lane toward the door with her in front. The area to the right was the "you're rude of you enter from this angle to the right." Suddenly she just stopped dead in her tracks. Because we were moving along at a fair clip. I actually ran into her and even with my arm stretched out fully, I couldn't even touch the door so I had to push past her half assedly. I don't mind opening the door for people, any people at all (not just women), but after several of these episodes it began to seem like a demand rather than a courtesy.
I'm not sure if this is a deal breaker or not but we are definitely not in sync. She had a couple good observations about my character and so I think maybe she's a slow thinker, like me.
Now I have to sit here and wonder if I'm being a neurotic "she has man hands!" seinfeld character.

-me

Fact of the day:
The word "agoraphobia" is an English adoption of the Greek words agora (αγορά) and phobos (φόβος), literally translated as "a fear of the marketplace". This translation is the reason for the common misconception that agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces, and is not clinically accurate.

I live in suburbia. I am surrounded by malls. If you were building a jail for people with agoraphobia they would be neatly contained within this apartment complex. If these same people were afraid of buildings all looking the same, you'd drive them stark raving mad within fairly short order. My main problem at this point is that not only do all the buildings look f'ing identical, the street name doesn't follow any sort of logic. It bends around and back on itself such that bearing left or right at one point will put you on the same street. See that "Fairfax woods way", that's the name of almost all of the streets in there. If I ever have friends visit, I'll have to send them my gps coords.

Let's address that mall issue. It's unbearably convenient. There is no adventure whatsoever in getting any item I need. There are multiple grocery stores within a mile. Each of which has its own particular yuppie branding. The weirdest thing about all this is that you cannot see them until you are right on top of them. Each mall is nestled behind a copse of trees and a few random hills. Even stranger is that if you make a wrong turn and get off the main roads, you are instantly in the rolling hills of virginia replete with horse farms and treacherously maintained asphalt slopes. In an attempt to ecape the malls today, I accidentally drove past a number of mansions. The most interesting of which had gigantic marble pillars with impressive gargoyles at the top.

I get the feeling I have no idea where I am. I mean that contextually as well as geographically. This place is supremely disorienting after Vancouver and Brisbane. Nothing is in plain view. You cannot see the mall for the trees. If there were geography that fit my personality, this is it. Random but good, and difficult to describe.

-me

Three days at work so far. Extremely disappointed in the tools. Now I know why companies refuse to show the tools before hiring people. It isn't because it reveals trade sekrits...it's because the smart ones will run the other way. The irony being that if they made the tools easy for stupid people, smart people would want to use them because they're lazy! The crenulated double irony there is that then they'd be attracting lazy smart people! Which am I? No comment.

I now have a new apartment (for as long as that is true.) Milan, btw.
As I couldn't find parking within a block and a half I may excercise my 30 day refusal clause. For any reason whatsoever I can refuse the apartment. Hopefully they'll just give me one of the parking stalls across the way.

Now that I have a place for teh boxes of doom to land, I can try to wangle my way around the next obstacle...U.S. Check not being released in Canadian funds! I thought that with a seven to ten day waiting period that having them issue the check in CAD would be the smart thing to do. Woe is me, I am a retard. They charged me a fee for the conversion and then the moving company declared they would be charging me in USD! So now I am paying for conversion twice AND the funds aren't even released yet. This is extra problematic because the holdup in releasing the funds has now cost me four hundred eighty dollars for a monthly storage cost at the moving company.

Here I am sitting on the floor in an empty apartment with newly acquired pillows and bedding...no bed. Air mattress quest tomorrow perhaps.

Quantum of Solace is fast out of the gate and then unravels into sillyness. Sorry for the spoiler.

Oh, and the Sony NavU 94T f'ing rocks. I haven't had to use my brain ONCE in getting here, there or anywhere.

Fallout 3 was good but too short. Following the main quest will complete the game in a ridiculously short period of time. Great replayability though.

-me

p.s. Thank you for not securing your wireless router...I won't have net hooked up at home for quite a while! Don't worry...I'm a very polite leech.

p.p.s. I f'ing left my razor at the hotel and forgot to get toilet paper at the store...grrrrrrrr.

Okay, shock and surprise...I neglected to post about the past few months saga of being layed off, interviewing at numerous companies and then subsequent offer and acceptance of a new position. Not only that, but I am now moving to Washington D.C. I've received a raise not only in number of dollars, but in currency as well (for as long as that is true.)

Today is moving day. Moving companies should charge me substantially less money for my door to door service as eighty eight percent of the job is done by myself. I have converted most of my cardboard boxes into durable plastic. Almost all of my linens are contained in various nylon bags. Even my PS3 is back in its original box, and within minutes of this writing, my computer and monitors will be in their original boxes. I've filled out the moving paperwork and done my last bit of laundry. My suitcases are packed and sitting in a corner. I will be traveling with two checked bags and a laptop.

I am going to time them to see how long it takes to move my stuff. I'd be extremely surprised if it took more than fifty two minutes.

-teh me

...yes, i pack the monitor cables with each monitor.

Horror as a genre is pretty weak for me. I can only take so much "boo!" before it gets old, and the older I get, the less tolerance I have for empty, baseless, poorly written scare factor props. After Bioshock was released I had hopes that the industry on the whole was figuring things out and that we could look forward to a new crop of higher quality plot driven games. I guess it was outrageously optimistic to think that artists, designers and producers had actually played the DOOM series and realized its shortcomings. It was probably even more outlandish for me to assume that there would be an improvement on horror based plot driven games...especially in sci-fi. Apparently nobody has learned anything and all we have left is scary artwork. What's scarier than a room full of body parts...oh oh, i know! an entire spaceship full of body parts is MUCH scarier!

Similarly nobody has figured out that careful presentation of artwork grants it much more impact. The frame is exactly as important as the work itself. The frame in DeadSpace is the cheapest black plastic frame they could find and they didn't even matte it. Frame meets game instantly. Clearly the producer suffers from premature plotulation as within the first ten minutes of gameplay you're face to face with the standards that haunt the game. Suspense had its ass kicked out the airlock when you're suddenly face to face with the first monster of the game. The beautifully voice acted questions about "what happened here?" are answered too quickly with SCARY GODAMN MONSTER HAPPENED! It's less a mystery than a problem, and it's more problem than interesting. And when the actors finally deliver an informative line...it's poorly concepted. "It's a bio-recombinator" is delivered like you couldn't figure out what was going on yourself...or that somehow in this universe that term is so "yesterday" that they've already turned it into an acronym. But what's more pedantic than surprise monstar buttsex every time you pick up a health pack?

Oh look, it's more people trapped inside a place you can't get to where they are helpless against the scary thing and there's nothing you can do...(you can't even pound on the glass) I guess this is part of the plot. Anyone who designs games like this enjoys disneyland a bit too much. You might as well be on a tram watching dioramas of spooky horror unfold in front of you acted out with animatronics. The next ride begins in fifteen minutes, you must be at least this dumb to enjoy the ride. Where's the dumb? It's in the writing. My favorite quote so far is, "Get the thermite from the medical supply." I'm guessing those aren't hotdogs in the galley either, they're dynamite. That would explain why everything on the ship is f'ing exploding. Are you feeling non-explody, is work completely not on fire? Ask your doctor about Thermite.

It's pretty clear in the writing that they suddenly discovered an online thesaurus and went through the list of terms, "nope...not medical-ly enough...nope...not enough syllables...oh oh, intransigent! I've heard that word!" If you don't understand the terms, don't use them. Write about what you know. If you don't know what you're writing about...GO LEARN.

If all these content issues weren't enough to keep me at arms length from the experience, then the faulted UI sure doesn't help. Taking a step backwards in game UI, bringing up the inventory is slow AND it's in real time! Yes, while digging in your backpack for more health and watching the clever animated UI...the monstars get to dice you. Thank god there's a save point every five inches. In some cases the save point is on top of a save point.
Ever wax nostalgic over those old games where you had to save every five minutes and then go back and try to scrounge enough ammo like a homeless guy to kill the next monster keeping you from a health pack? Don't be nostalgic, you can have yesterday today!

Someone please tell the audio guy that whispering voices only make sense if there's someone to whisper. What could have been a genuinely creepy moment was quickly destroyed by overuse of audio props.

Also, someone please explain to the artists that not everything looks better rusty.

I've been thinking about it and have suddenly realized that what they have actually achieved here is a new kind of horror. I am continually horrified by the quality of this game and how much the general public is enjoying it. The stupider the game is, the less sound comes out of my mouth in my living nightmare. The fact that a game like this is the current standard makes me want to kill more brain cells. The art is beautifully horrific though bizarre and weakly justified...and it's the sole reason I will drag myself like a corpse through to the end. If I wasn't obsessive about finishing video games this thing would be a coaster.

epilogue:
I just finished the game. My next complaint is inconsistent ammo placement. For the first half the game I couldn't find enough bullets to kill troublesome spaghetti monsters...then, at some point I was suddenly drowning in ammo. We all know what happens when you drown in ammo...you're about to get gang raped by N monstars and/or boss of N hitpoints where N is a number slightly higher than ammo. It took two tries to get through the end boss. Not bad, but the boss was a bit too predictable, but I don't know how to improve it without making it impossible. So I'll cut some slack and just be thankful the game is over. I'm not going to buy another horror title unless it ranks 9.9. I'm just way too jaded and analytical to enjoy this sort of thing. There'd have to be some really good writing; Bioshock, System Shock, Fear...I'm looking at you. I'll never forget my four a.m. game play sessions with System shock where I was freaking out at how good the audio and AI was. But that's another story.

I recently purchased a PS3. After many months of consideration and patiently waiting for the verdicts to roll in, the deciding factors were blu-ray, quiet, and not having a ring of death. Many friends report their xboxes in quite good health and have never seen red. I'm glad to hear it, though worrying that it might happen was enough of a deterrant.
Perhaps for many the game lineup isn't fitting. I admit to being underwhelmed as well. Though when I look at the top twenty games, I have three of the top five and enjoyed them quite well. I think we'll see a great deal of change as all platforms mature.
This may seem like I have layed out a fairly even playing field and that while I am a Sony Fan, I am not rabid. The points made are all fair and I've made no particularly favorable statements beyond my personal experience and decision.

Time for the shock. I am wildly upset with their online store.

This is a company that had to fight quite hard to win my money. The rodeo font, iffy slogan and completely insane advertising did nothing to encourage me or instill confidence. Now that I have my PS3, it has grown on me and I actually will spend more money on it. In fact I am willing to blow money on special occasions as though I were on crack while visiting iTunes. I am willing to throw money at their online presence. They will not, however, catch the money! I am firing my fivers out of a cannon and they are dodging it! There is no way for me to add money to my "Sony Wallet." I have tried every credit card I own with every spelling and punctuation that could conceivably be misinterpreted by a computer. The cards work for other purchases without fail. I can buy from amazon, future shop and best buy. Upon calling the help desk they informed me that they cannot even manage a transaction over the phone.

I seriously don't know how these guys can make money when they refuse to take it.

I decided this evening that as consolation for a crappy day at work and in celebration of reasonable weather that I'd walk someplace new for dinner. I ended up walking up to Granville street and hitting a place called WINGS. That's pretty self explanatory. The sign offered EIGHTEEN FLAVORS!!! Anything with three exclamation points and all capitals is worth a look.
As I haven't had intensely good wings since I left Boston I thought I'd chance it. There were some very good wings to be had at a place called Blue Smoke in Brisbane, but the best I've had were probably in the deep south of the states. Boston had some really excellent wings with the added benefit of a menu of two hundred types of beer. So here I was longing for some hotness and strolling into WINGS, possibly the most generic restaurant name in town. I.e. you don't see any place called "Hamburgers", "Ribs" or "Spaghettis."...at the very least no place that doesn't look very questionable, possibly dangerous and drug dealery.
Looking through the menu the eighteen flavors were indeed exotic but I wasn't in the mood for that kind of chance as not many had little hotness symbols by them. Upon looking at the regular buffalo wings I was disappointed to see only one little hotness chicken wing symbol.
One...is a boring number.
I needed at least a two. No other flavors on the menu offered a two that was interesting. Thusly I rested on the "Wings of Fire" three.
I asked how hot they really were as I didn't believe their little hoohah statement "So hot you need to sign a release form...we're not kidding!"
When asked, the waitress said pretty casually that they are "pretty hot." I suppose I should have put her under a bright light and intensely interrogated her about her relationship to hot food, but in the end I was left with the impression that three was just right for my mood.
The wings came and I dug in. This is the point that one is the boringest number in the whole chickeny hot world. Three however is about as exciting as a man of my timid hot quality tolerance can stand. Tears were streaming from one eye as I finished half of the plate and gulped my martini...which didn't help as much as I'd like...so I ordered some beer. All pretense was out the window at this point. It was me against the wings.
I struggled with each wing after; ordered more water, ordered more beer. My lips were flaming. My vision was blurred periodically by more involuntary tears. I finally finished the plate and had to drink water just before asking for the bill or would have screeched it.
If I'm having that three again, it'll be a 1.5 as I fully intend to share it with a second person...who's daring enough.

-meee

Okay, with the release of this game the era of "video games can't be art" is completely done. Sorry, if you don't know how to properly experience this game as art, it's not the arts fault, nor is it the artists. If you think that sitting down in a poorly thought out environment with random distractions is a proper way to evaluate it, then you are clearly not worthy of the experience. The uncompromising craft of this game demands that you give it an appropriate space, mental and physical. The models, animations, shaders, game design, story telling, acting, audio etc. are top notch. The game challenges you to hold it up to excruciatingly close scrutiny. It does this by allowing you to zoom in to it during the cinematics as well as using in game devices. Supreme textures and shaders give everything an amazingly tactile quality. High quality voice acting won't cause you to wince at clunky dialog. Usually I'm the guy complaining about crappy dialog, and MGS definitely has weaker moments, but the weakest moment of this game is stronger than the best of many others. It has a few characteristically japanese moments, and jokes about diarrhea don't play well with me.I just call it lost in translation. I waited patiently until these awkward things passed and I was rewarded.

Unfortunately, it may be that some people who encounter this game are not actually worthy of the experience. How on earth can it be that any art might be fit only for a select audience and that somehow they would bring their own worth to the transaction? Isn't it true that anyone who pays for the game is "worthy?" No. I'm sorry. This is not the case. Much as there are people who can afford to buy an F18 fighter jet and be unable to pilot it, there are people who cannot play this game. You might conjecture that I have boiled it down to video gaming talents and reaction time. While that is a part of the equation, the rest is filled with the balance of patience and open mindedness. Much as you might swirl a wine, and smell it in a proper wine glass, you must have an appropriately equipped home theatre to appreciate the full sensory interaction that was crafted for this game. In playing the game you use your eyes, ears and brain to meet the art half way and tell a story. That story will be unique to your situation and mindset. With that, I'll give you a few things to listen for in evaluations of the game.
If you hear people complaining that they couldn't properly sneak and that the game broke down into a completely different action game, then they weren't living up to playing the character of the game. The character demands that you keep your cool and role play a seasoned veteran. The situations I have been in were quite forgiving if you acted halfway intelligently. But when that alarm sounds and the game has drawn you into a heartfelt panic, blame yourself if you can't find a way out of it. If you play this like Gears of War, you will fail miserably in more than one respect. You will have failed to listen to the story. If you are unable to complete the missions because you are inept, there is little that can be done to really bring you into the experience. If someone says, "I don't like science fiction and I hate war as a concept." Then perhaps it's okay to allow that they simply do not enjoy this sort of thing. But in so doing, they have alienated themselves from the only position they could maintain that would allow criticism of the game as "not art." There are many actions that a player can take to break the experience and drive it into absurdity or cloud the story with complaint, but that's true of any story, including art house cinema.
I'm sure I'll have more to say by the time I complete the game. But at ten or twelve hours in, it's f'ing awesome.
To anyone who dislikes the game, I only have pity for you. Because this is one of the greatest games I've ever played so far.