Manly Monday (round 2)

Whew. Hell of a week last week, followed by an interesting weekend. As you can gather from my deadpanned previous (Friday) post, I got a little beat-up, but managed to put some alcohol on it Friday night & Saturday night, which helped tremendously.

Friday, I hooked up w/ my old drummer for the first time in about 10 years ('hooked up' as in we went our for beers, not me unlocking his anus w/ my dick-key). We caught up, slowly got over the shock of sitting at a table together, and talked about what it means to be in your thirties with no clear direction in your professional life. I was glad that someone else thinks about that, too.

Saturday, I went to an all-day Driver Improvement Program for my 52-in-a-30 speeding ticket, and found myself simultaneously fascinated and nauseated by the fact that I was literally twice the age of the average attendant. Good times. I then went and podcasted with Tony. It was rad. I would say that this is the best podcast we've done in months. It's also the best TGS podcast we've done in about a year.

We, will, of course, be doing our Holiday Preview this Saturday, and are still gathering up all the games that you wanna hear about. If you're on the fence about something, want to learn more about a holiday release, or just wanna hear that game that you can't live without talked up some more, drop your list here. We'll take the most popular and the most interesting and then drone on about our tedious lives for two and a half hours while casually mentioning something that is very important to you.

Also, don't forget that tomorrow marks the first new Alice in Chains release in fourteen years. I've been listening to my review disc, and I gotta say that several of the tracks are pretty memorable, in a good way, and die-hard fans are going to be rewarded. It's got enough familiarity to it that you instantly recognize the band, but enough has changed that it stays interesting from start to finish.



I also snagged the new Star Trek Blu-Ray sets, Star Trek Season 2 Remastered and the Star Trek: the Next Generation films. Star Trek s2 includes the DS9 tribble episode, so it'll be the first time I've gotten to see Deep Space Nine in HD. DS9 has long been my favorite of all the Star Trek series, so it'll be a real treat to gaze lovingly upon it as my eyes are masturbated by the 1080p-ness of it all. I also just love any and all Star Trek in HD.

Anyway...



Manly Monday
In keeping with today's reader question, I wanted to direct this one to the ladies a bit.

It's pretty simple. Really.

Whether you mean to or not, you train your man. You do. It may not be obvious, but your man behaves and treats you in the way that you've taught him is acceptable.

Look, we men are simple creatures. We like food, competition, sex, and power. Manipulate those basic concepts, and you can train your man. Don't believe me? Read up on B.F. Skinner. Seriously.

A good man doesn't want to waste your time with needless discussion, and he's too focused on the simple things he can control to pick up on your 'signals,' so your best bet is too just implement your own schedule of reinforcement for him.

Now, before I continue, this is all based on a few assumptions. One, that this, in fact, a loving relationship and that you two desire nothing less than both partners succeeding and being happy people, two, that your man is a good man but still a man and therefore a basic primate, and three, he is not a paranoid schizophrenic.

Additionally, none of this is meant for serious issues. This is for those annoying 'little things' that he does (or doesn't do).

So, let's cover some basic concepts. One, the behavior that you want to encourage and see more of is rewarded by you. Two, the behavior that you wish to get rid of is punished. I know that these seem kind of like 'duh' sort of things, but you'd be amazed how easily these things can get lost in a relationship. After just a couple years of marriage, great things about your partner will be taken for granted by you, and vice versa. Don't believe me? Go out with couples that you're friendly with, and you'll see just how fucking awful your marriage could be. It happens to us all the time.

Hopefully, the first thing that happens when you start thinking about existing behaviors that you want reinforced is that you start to realize that, in at least some ways, you have it good with your man. If not, it may be time to trade him in to the dealer.

Odds are, though, that there is some existing negative behavior that has led you to the point of considering training your mate like he was a dog.

Don't feel bad, though. Men need this. You know how you have that one female friend that lets her man get away with anything and everything? Do you want to be her? No, I didn't think so.

And that's the thing. Don't we unconsciously train our friends and lovers? We react with laughter and smiles and affection when they do something to earn that from us, and we do quite the opposite when they earn our ire, as well.

So, this is just like that, but on a more precise level.

Let's take something simple. Let's say he leaves his dirty socks all over the house.

First, give him a chance. Ask him once. If you're the one that does the laundry in the relationship, tell him it makes things much easier for you if all the dirty laundry is in one place.

He now knows that there is an expectation. From there, you now stringently live in the boundaries that you verbally outlined for him. If he lives his shit lying around, you don't need to be a bitch about it, but you can smile a little when he's out of clean socks. If he says something about it, tell him you'd be happy to help him remedy the issue if he could take a moment, go around the house, and then deposit them in the designated location, and do so in a kind manner. Mean it when you say it.

Now, let's say he starts to actually correct his behavior over the next few weeks. Let's say he starts being a little neater in general. When you see him doing something right in regards to his neatness, give him a little extra lovin'. Or, let's say he goes out of his way to try and impress you by starting to do the laundry himself or maybe he tries to have the place looking a little nicer for you. Make damn sure you reward him, in whatever way you see fit.

What'll probably happen, if he starts catching on, is that he'll unconsciously try to slack off a little, and get back to a comfortable, lazy place. Ease off on the 'rewarding' a bit, but then reinforce good behavior as soon as you can. Of course, communicating straight-up in these situations helps quite a bit, too, but he should make a point of knowing your expectation.

Also, be sure to tie the reward/punishment directly to whatever behavior you're targeting. Mete out the feedback as quickly as you can, even if it's doing a little playful teasing at that moment, with the potential to follow up later.

Speaking as a well-trained husband who's training is ever-continuing, I can assure that clear, literal communication, coupled with the above conditioning parameters can smooth your marriage considerably.

Lastly, speaking as a man, all of this works wonders in bed, as well. We love nothing more than knowing that we're rocking your world, or not. Exaggerate your breathing or noises a little when we're doing something that you want more of, and use subtle silence to get us to move on to something else if what we're doing is quite what ya need. Afterward, bring it up, and couch it in terms of 'THAT one thing was AWESOME, and maybe you could linger on THAT instead of doing THAT OTHER THING.' We want little more in life than knowing that we're the guy who does it for ya better than anyone else has ever even dreamed.

Reader Questions
This one comes from Tami in Maine. She asks,

Dear Blaine,
How do I ask my much-loved but oh-so-manly guy to do something around the house and make it sound like I'm not nagging? I don't want to nag, I just want to be able to vaccuum behind the fridge without an avalanche of stuff (not mine) falling on my head when I pull the damn thing away from the wall.

signed,
Sick of listening to the fridge run non-stop

I've been noticing lately that I know a lot of women who don't want to sound like they're nagging, but fear that they may be compelled to do so if their man doesn't get on something STAT.

What's sad is that my wife has been there before, with me, and still runs into this with me.

I suggest trying one of the following.

First, the simplest and best thing for everyone involved is saying, 'Can you take care of [X] for me? It'd mean a lot to me so that I can [do Y].' Now, if he's anything like me, he'll smile, assure that it's not a problem, advise you that he'll get to it later, and that never quite find that right moment in which to do it.

Second, you could try a simple barter. Make it into something interesting. Offer something he would value in exchange for his compliance with your directive. My wife has used everything from food to being willing to sit through an action/horror flicks with me to foot massages to more suggestive propositions, and that's worked nicely, though she does point out that I should just get off my ass and do it, in order to be an equal partner in our fortress of love.

Third, you do live in Maine, where it's always winter, and where Stephen King's monsters are running. You could just wait 'til he's in undies, then shove him outside, barricade the door, and tell him that the only way in is through the fridge, so if he'll just agree to do something about all of his shit there, you'd be glad to let him back in, before he dies of exposure or by being eaten by a terrible hell-demon.

Fourth, and this just occurred to me, wait 'til he's chilling, then start doing your vacuuming, and when you get to that moment, ask him to give you a hand with the fridge. Put him on the spot. Or tell him as soon as you start vacuuming, and say 'in 5 minutes, I'm gonna move that fridge, and you're going to help me.'

Hey, fellow men, any other thoughts on this? What have your wives/girlfriends/partners done to 'train you,' or get your motivated in some way?

Ladies, what tricks work for you?

I'll feature the best stuff in next week's Manly Monday!

Need some input on that once white-hot relationship turned festering marriage? Lemme know! I have a hot, happy wife, so I'm an expert!

-Blaine

Tomorrow: Tech Tuesday. We're talkin' games tomorrow, kids!

Post-Memorial Day Reawakening

I really want Infamous.

Read the 1UP Review!

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Video Games | inFAMOUS | Review HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

It looks really cool, in that Crackdown kinda way.

Memorial Day Weekend
They boy and I met the Lady at her parents' house in Kingston, IL last Friday night for Memorial Day weekend. She had flown up the Wednesday before to get some time to hang with her girlfriends and sister. As I discussed in the last post, they live in a rather remote area, but as usual, it was fun.

Part of the fun was I finally broke down and bought an iPod, as I mentioned previously. I've had some time to really get to know it, and so far, I really like it, but I have some serious reservations about iTunes. Here's a quick love/hate breakdown for ya:

I LOVE:

- the sorting functions; it sorts music in all sorts of helpful and interesting ways

- the slickness; it looks purty while it's doing it's thing

- the way it handles podcasts; I used to waste a lotta time manually managing my podcasts; it's nice being able to just set rules for each podcast in iTunes and just let the thing function the way I told it to once

- I'm actually starting to come around on the way iTunes handles playlists; I hated it for a while since it's different from Winamp, but I've started to kinda dig it these last few days

- sound quality; the sound quality is stunning

I HATE:

- the interface; I know Apple is allergic to buttons, but add at least a couple; context-sensitivity is cool and all, but that one button is responsible for too much; the scroll wheel is cool, at times, for song selection and volume, but it's a little twitchy when it comes to setting ratings for songs

- the initial loading of the library; it should just look at my music directory and go 'okay, here's your songs;' it doesn't; I don't care what fucking encoding a song is in, just play it; I accidentally ripped 2200 songs in .wma (forgot that WMP rips in .wma format by default) when I re-ripped my CD collection; a music player should just play them; instead, it spent 7-8 hours converting them to .aac, in a furthering of the Apple/M$ pissing contest; it then duplicated half the songs, so I had to wipe out the whole library and try again; I didn't properly sync the fucking thing until I'd had it for a day and a half; this was the worst part of the experience

- too susceptible to fingerprints (very minor complaint)

- doesn't play HD Quicktime (small Quicktime looks like shit)

- it doesn't save my place in a podcast; since my podcasting device was separate from my music before this, I used to flip to music occasionally and come back to the podcast later in the day. Now, I can't do that. If I flip to music, it starts the podcast over. I'm starting to see why all you iPod-loving fucks would bitch when we recorded podcasts that were actually a good length. WE weren't the problem, that piece of shit device on which made yourself dependent was the problem! Yes, it does. Oops.

Overall, the iPod and I have formed a decent relationship. We're like those grudging cop buddies in an action flick.

The Lady and I took in a double feature yesterday of Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek. I'd already seen Star Trek, but she hadn't. Wii Apologist John also joined us for Terminator.

Terminator: Salvation was better than I was expecting. Given that it was directed the amazingly hyper-cutting McG who is responsible for such abominations as Charlie's Angels and Fastlane, and the giant dumps AICN had been taking on it, I was almost sad about the movie before even seeing it. Then, when it ended up being a really fun action flick, I was okay. It continues the story of the Terminator films, has great action, and that's what I needed outta this movie. If you see it, I'm curious about something. Did you think it was John Connor's movie, or Marcus Wright's?

Star Trek was actually a lot better for me the second time, since I wasn't wasted this time. This time around, I really felt like captured more of the spirit of what Star Trek is. I do have a hell of a bone to pick with the writers and producers, though. This is NOT an alternate time line. It is the new timeline, and they've obliterated everything that happened in Star Trek, Star Trek: the Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. It's not an alternate timeline because Nero went back and changed events. He didn't create a second reality, he just changed the existing one. Therefore, according to this film, nothing after Star Trek: Enterprise counts. That's sorta fucked up. I don't know how I feel about that.

Anyway, it was a fun weekend, which we concluded with my sister's birthday.

Oh, perhaps you saw this?

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Video Games | Modern Warfare 2 | Reveal Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I am more excited about that game than you can imagine. How about you?

Before that, though, what are your big summer entertainment items? I'm stoked about Drag Me to Hell next week, NCAA Football 10, Madden NFL 10, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Watchmen on BD. What about you?

-Blaine

Randomness Organized

Late post, I know.

Drove my wife to the airport at 0'dark 30 and spent the day lounging with my son. We hung out, wrestled around, practiced counting, went to check out my buddy's new baby (though the baby wasn't there, conspicuously), then came back, made some of my homemade organic pizza, chilled and watched some Cards-Cubs (which the good guys, the Cardinals, naturally won), as well as some NBA playoff action. I looked over to him at one point to explain who Lebron was, and little dude was passed out and had burrowed into the couch cushions.

Three is a much better age than two.

So, yeah, a day with just the boy and me was one I didn't want to spend banging away at the keys (even if I did sneak a little Mass Effect here and there.)

So, he's asleep, today's sports action has subsided (how 'bout them Magic?), I've gotten Wrex and Garrus to tell me their innnermost secrets, so now I present to you a blog.

GFW Live and What Should Be
Every time I log onto one of my computers at home, I launch Steam and Xfire, as well as Gmail in a browser. I like to open myself up for a few moments for folks to contact for some action, if there's any to be had. [editors note - that's gaming action, not the type-fwap-type-fwap kind]

What's funny is that if I launch GFW Live, I get a marketplace in which I can spend space bucks on now-fixed Fallout 3 add-ons, and little else. No friends list, no profile editing (aside from an option to delete my profile from this machine), nothin'. I've used it to get exclusive Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 DLC, and that's it.

Now, if I want a slightly more robust GFW Live experience, I can launch Dawn of War 2, and actually access my friends list, but I am resistant to having that run in the background all of the time.

Why are these two seperate apps? One need only look at the excellent Steam service to see what's possible. I am ostensibly running Steam, and it is damn near the only thing for which I use Windows (as I sheepishly type this from my Windows partition.)

I mean, after Apple purchased Xerox's GUI all those years and turned it into the Macintosh OS, Microsoft turned around and shifted from DOS to Windows, which was based on Mac. Microsoft launched the Zune to compete with iPod. Microsoft has some skill when it comes to recognizing good ideas and aping them (and I'll take Windows 7 over Mac OSX any day, though I am an Ubuntu man most of the time.)

So, why not launch something that functions similarly to Steam, but ties into XBL? Something from which I can launch games, see who's online doing what, and coordinate with them? Where's that service that truly supports cross-play between 360 and PC?

I know the lack of actual 360 servers must be an issue, since a lotta PCs are utter shit, and couldn't handle doubling as a server, but tell me you haven't been in a 360 multiplayer game that was being hosted by some dude in Buttfuck, Montana with a connection resembling 56k. You find a way to change hosts and move on.

It just seems to me that one could attract a lot more PC players to the GFW flag if you promised that they would be supplied with plenty of console FPS players to devour mercilessly. And, yes, I happily play CoD4 and CoDWaW on 360.

What really burns my ass is that Microsoft announced that they wouldn't be announcing anything regarding GFW at E3 this year. I don't know who is in charge of GFW over there, but either they suck, or they're being told to suck.

Maybe this is being held back for the next XBox launch?


Glee
I am many things, but one of the things I am, first and foremost, is a man.

I'm not saying I'm one of those terrified-of-my-own-homosexuality mouth-breather fucktard screeching-on-XBL bigots that pretends to hate anything gay. I'm saying that I'm a comfortably married heterosexual that revels in certain masculine traits. I'm a problem solver, I loathe weakness, I yell at TVs when the Cardinals or Rams are on, I pester my wife for free sex, I eye laundry duty suspiciously, I maintain the yard, I'm obsessed with old wars, I scramble for cover when my wife and her friends get emotional, I think beer is awesome, and I idolize George S. Patton.

I'm also a mature adult. You might call me 'old.' I'll turn 31 this July (eesh, if I was an NFL running back, my career would be winding down.) Most bands I listen to are made up of members that are in their mid-40s now. I am shocked every time I think about the fact that Star Trek: the Next Generation is now 22 years old.

HA! You were just shocked by that, too! Fucked up, isn't it?



As you can see, I have excellent taste in television.

Almost everything I watch is science-fiction, aside from a smattering of 'about a writer' stuff, Law & Order, and anything fictional about a catering crew (I was restaurant manager/catering manager for a LOOONG time).

So, when my wife, who has 75% excellent taste in TV, suggested we watch Glee, I was curious. All I knew is that it had Jane Lynch, who is the funniest woman ever, so I was in.

Remember, I knew NOTHING about it. I am fucking GRITTY, man, GRITTY, and then I watched this:



I think I hated it. I'm not sure.

I mean, I LOVE music, in all its forms. I'm just as likely to listen to a Pearl Jam album as I am the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack as I am the latest Uematsu-san OSV as I am the latest Nelly (all he has is a .net? Really?) record as I am the soundtrack to Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog.

This shit, though...this shit was unlike anything I'd been exposed to. I really felt like high school glee club nerds had written it, which I suppose is to capitalize on that High School Musical series of films. I've not seen them, but I've gathered from my wife and sister-in-law that they are fairly popular with tweens.

What's interesting, though, is that there is a teacher who is married in the show, and the portrayal of his marriage is so...off. Any married man who's watched television can tell ya that no one quite gets it right, in terms of portrayal, kinda like the birthing process, but that there are some reasonably okay approximations.

The marriage shown here is a hypo-realistic horny tween girl's fantastical mental diarrhea. I don't think it's supposed to be realistic, but the problem that creates is that I don't give a flying fuck what really happens in that relationship.

Anyway, I am so clearly not the audience for this show, but I was shocked that my wife LOVED it. Well, no.

Now that I think about it, she eats this kinda shit up. I love her dearly, but she's still into the whole high school thing, and still hangs with a lotta her high school friends, whereas I picked a select few with which to maintain contact. Any high school story that doesn't involve hardcore realistic drug use or fucking induces an eyeroll from me.

STOP
I wanna talk more about my PC Mass Effect playthrough, but I'll save it for another day, as this has probably gone on a bit long-ish.

Sorry for the late post, but I was really enjoying some 'man' time with my son. I'll be back at my regular time later today.

-Blaine

Still Standing

Yesterday concluded the toughest school year of my life. It's interesting being 30 and challenged academically, even if the challenge lies in my awful study habits.

As I've said ad nauseum here, I'm just relieved to finally have a few weeks in which to breathe, get my brain reorganized, and rejoin the fight in the middle of June.

It'd also be nice if it stopped fucking storming some time soon.

First, in order to understand, you must be brought low:



I don't really know what to say about that, so let us move on.

New Stuff
I picked up the new Star Trek 1-6 Blu-Ray set yesterday, to celebrate the conclusion of my finals. I am like a little kid when it comes to buying prettied-up Star Trek episodes and movies I already own, bouncing around joyously while Archer/Kirk/Picard/Sisko/Janeway yells 'FIRE!' as my wife shakes her head at the thousands of dollars I've spent over the last 15 years to make sure I own the 'definitive' version of each episode/movie.

I am a Star Trek junkie.

Both of the Blu-Ray sets that are out (Star Trek season 1 and Star Trek 1-6) are great in terms of visuals and sound, but a little perplexing when it comes to actual content. The season 1 set, like its DVD predecessor, is missing the Cage, the original pilot submitted to and rejected by NBC, which featured an entirely different cast, except for Spock. This ended up w/ season 3 on DVD, which made sense in terms of broadcast order, but was still annoying, since it clearly takes place before the events of season 1.

Additionally, the movie set doesn't feature any of the director's cuts from the DVD set, which means they'll be trotting out the final versions around the time of the sequel to this year's Star Trek.

Speaking of the movie...hmm...I'll talk about it more in depth next week, but here's the basic feelings I have now:

- I was really worried about how I was gonna react to the 'alternate universe' gimmick they used to give themselves carte blanche with the storytelling possibilities, and they handled it well

- this film has the best opening of any Star Trek film or episode up to this point

- the casting was brilliant

- the film was paced beautifully

- Nero is the lamest villain in Star Trek history; we know next to nothing about him, don't really care about whatever it is he's feeling, and never spend enough time with him to feel very strongly one way or the other about him

- I don't know how I feel about the film being absent of the core Star Trek values; I'm not saying I needed a preachy scene, but one of the things that defines Star Trek is a moment in which a character has the principles of the Federation challenged, and they make a choice, one way or the other; I enjoyed it, but it seemed to lack the intellect of all non-Voyager Star Trek stories; I could have sworn that Brannon Braga was a secret consultant

- as I said, I liked it, but I was left wondering if it was a Star Trek action film, or an action film dressed up as Star Trek

- you will perceive this as being 'nerdy,' but I assure you that I must do it in order to make sense of this strange universe: 'Star Trek' is the fourth best Star Trek film behind 'the Wrath of Khan,' 'the Undiscovered Country,' and 'First Contact.'

- this film is definitely geared more toward generic humans rather than Star Trek fans, though both will enjoy it

As I said, I'll write more about it later, after I've seen it again, and had some time to actually think about it and discuss it (I've been up to my eyeballs in fucking academics since I saw it.)


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

The Future
I downloaded the new Fable II DLC, 'See the Future,' though I've not had a chance to even touch it yet, due to the aforementioned Finals, and a family emergency that came up last night. I should be giving it a shot tonight.

I've estimated that I've spent, roughly, the GDP of a small European country on Disgaea 3 DLC, and I've hardly touched any of it. It's a situation akin to addiction, wherein my brain says, 'that right there is something branded with "Disgaea," which means you must have it.' One day...one day...

I'm really looking forward to Terminator: Salvation and Drag Me to Hell, as well as True Blood on Blu-Ray.

Well, I was gonna embed trailers but embedding is disabled by Warner, so I guess they don't want fans to help them promote, so I won't link to the films, either.

The Past
I was driving to the hospital last night, to see my mother (don't wanna get into the details, but she's going to be fine), when I saw that one of my old restaurants had been closed.

It was the restaurant in which I'd been hired as a dishwasher at 18 years old, and then I was running when I was 26. I knew they were struggling, and I suspected, for a number of reasons, that they were gonna shut down, but to actually see that a place that had housed so many memories, spread out over so many years, shuttered and ripped up like that was a little disturbing. I was sad, to tell ya the truth.

It was a place where I had memories acting like a dumb, jack-ass kid, throwing knives around, making out with female coworkers, napping in the walk-in cooler, and all kindsa idiotic, fun stuff.

On the other end, I remember being the leader that cracked down on shit like that, and matter of fact, my history was one of the reasons they installed me there when I came back to the region, since I knew most of the crap that the kids would try to pull.

In many ways, that store helped define me in ways that are almost silly. I mean, come on, a crappy job teaching a boy what it means to be a man? Pfft!

Really, though, I did learn a tremendous amount from some great people while I was there, and was rewarded with some great leadership positions, and it's sad to see the place go.

Wrapping Up
So, I'll be back tomorrow, and I'm resuming my M-F blogging schedule, so you can count on regular spewings from me each afternoon. I'm still working out my summer schedule w/ my day-job employer, but it's looking like I'm gonna have a nice, chill schedule, and I'm gonna have time to work on some personal projects.

First up, I'll be doing some editing of some very old writing of mine and I'll be making my first Team Fortress 2 map as an excercise. From there...well, we'll see. I'd still really like to do a NWN/NWN2 mod.

So, anyone seen Star Trek? What'd you think? Have you tried the new Fable II DLC? Have you tried any of the Disgaea 3 DLC? What'd you think of either?

Lemme know!

-Blaine

Stopping to breathe.

We're a little poor at the moment, since that phat podcast money isn't coming in anymore (pfft), so I had to get creative today in the kitchen. I took pepperoni, folded it a couple times, inserting provolone in each of the folds, then smothered hot dog buns in pizza sauce, then slid the pepperoni/provolone into the buns. I then microwaved them for one minute, and BAM! The best lunch I've had in weeks.

Adversity forces creative thinking, which is something I like to be reminded of every so often.

Education
Finals start tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to getting them over with. It's been a bitch of a school year, and I'm looking forward to sinking my dagger into its breast, then getting my mind fixed for a few weeks.

I got Microeconomics tomorrow, a class I've thoroughly enjoyed, and I feel okay about that one. Then, Tuesday...wait, no one gives a shit. I hate reading these types of posts, what the fuck am I doing?

Anyway, I'm all done Wednesday, which I'm very much looking forward to. The See the Future DLC comes out for Fable II on Tuesday, so resuming my endless Fable II playthrough Wednesday night will be a nice reward.

Of course, I put myself back on my 8-4 work schedule the very next day, so no real partying 'til the following weekend. Then, we get to start being social again.

This and That
I'm not sure if everyone is wise to this fact, but bitmob.com has gone alpha and is up for your viewing pleasure. Even the alpha version of their site has me excited, as does their philosophy. If you were ever a fan of EGM or 1UP, go check out this site. For me, it fits very neatly with the other gaming sites I frequent (1UP & giantbomb & gamasutra & the escapist)

I really wanna now call out all you irresponsible fucks that give sites like IGN and Gamespot traffic, and thus clicks, and thus dollars, and ask you why you support paid-for reviews and shit like that, but I won't. I don't have the energy to lock horns with those that frequent the 'Wal-Mart' of gaming sites. Of course, without those people, who would I laugh at when I read comment sections for game reviews?

I'll post my thoughts on Star Trek at the end of the week. I'm the biggest Trekkie I know, and I want to see it again before I solidify these opinions. I know it's a fun 'popcorn movie' (all you motherfuckers who use that term should be set on fire while you're sent back and time and aborted with a shotgun blast) for most of you...non-Trekkies, but seeing my most beloved franchise 'rebooted,' so to speak, was exciting and traumatic, at the same time. I know I'm a huge nerd for being passionate about Star Trek, but it's a series that's always spoken to me, and I consider myself lucky to have something that means so much to me be so large and deep (ooh, that's what she said). I feel sorry for any of you people that ever feel ashamed for being passionate about something.

Phew. Moving on...

We started watching episodes of Party Down this weekend, when I was taking breaks from studying, and it's great! It follows a group of caterers who are stuck with their shit jobs, while each has a different dream they're chasing. It is hilarious, it is touching, it'll make ya squirm, but it'll also make you laugh your ass off! Watch it now!




Anyone out there got any good finals-related stories? I love hearing that kinda shit.

Also, I don't know if I'll be posting again before Thursday. If I have time, I would love to, but no promises. As I said, I'll be studying and testing my ass off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Okay, just wanted to drop you all a line to let you know that I hadn't, in fact, abandoned this blog. I've just been busy as hell. Back to studying.

-Blaine

Bah.

Got some difficult things outta the way, as far as ending the semester goes, and it's only Tuesday, so I'm pretty pleased. I don't have a lotta time today, so here's some rapid fire stuff for ya:

- went to the Cardinals game last night, and Rick Ankiel had an incredibly scary moment. He was running for a flyball in left-center and then crashed head-first into the wall. At that moment, his entire body went "rag-doll" and he collapsed to the ground, motionless. As they were carrying him off in a stretcher, he did manage to give a thumbs-up. He's going to be fine, but it scared the shit outta me. He and I are about the same age, and watching him overcome the things he's overcome has always been inspirational to me. I really want to see him come out okay and kick some serious ass the rest of his career. Also, that last link is to Bryan Burwell's column about the incident, and I suggest reading it. He's been my favorite sportswriter for a while, and this is another great example of why.

- played some Quake Live at work today. I had been meaning to do this for a while, but I'm fairly conditioned to work while I'm at work, and play while I'm not. I rarely cross the two, but I really needed to blow off some steam, so I went ahead and fired that bad boy up. After I finished all my initial work, I played for about a half hour, and had a great time. My work machine is a piece of shit, and while it ran a little choppy, it still ran. The other browser-based shooter game that's in beta that I'm on (and cannot discuss) did not run, but I also haven't really looked at why yet. Anyway, Quake Live is great fun, it's in open beta, so hop in and have fun!

- it's my wife's birthday today! She's only 27, and I'm now hearing her bitch about her age for the first time. Kinda interesting. I've been doing it since I was 16 or so, and I'm 30 now, so I actually have an excuse to bitch. She was remarking to me that she's "not jailbait anymore, and that sucks." I'm sure I said something crude in reply, but I don't remember. Either way, it's her birthday, and we'll be celebrating it tonight, which I'm looking forward to. I got her the new Sookie book and True Blood on Blu-Ray.

- I have kind of a quiet day tomorrow, but we'll be going out with my folks tomorrow night for dinner (for the Lady's b-day.) I have a mega-giant Statistics exam on Thursday, followed by some mid-day beta testing, followed by a little day-job work, then I'm hanging out with my son while my wife works, then John and I are going out for his birthday, and seeing the new Star Trek @ 11PM on DLP. RAWK. Friday, I work a bit, then this weekend is devoted to studying for finals, and blowing off steam through either sex or gaming.

- After 5/13, I'm done with finals, and then it's time to focus on day-job work and personal project work. I think I'm going to first turn my attention to pushing the 10-year old first novel out the door, so that I can focus on something new this summer. There's also the question of what kind of relationship E3 and I are going to have at the beginning of June. We'll see. I'm doing some coursework over the summer, though that only lasts 8 weeks or so. I'd really like to do a mod for Quake Wars this summer, or maybe Neverwinter Nights, but we'll see. I keep saying I'm gonna teach myself Python, and this summer is a great chance to do exactly that. Again, we'll see.

So, I'm getting ready to head out for the day. How's everyone else's week going? Any crazy plans for the summer?

Also, thanks for the linkage, Laurance! Go check out his blog, everyone! Much more quality shit than you'll find here!

-Blaine