World of Evil Watchmen

World of Goo
I'm a sucker for independent games. I love the idea of one, two or a very small group of developers putting their time and passion into a project they love. I just don't buy that many of them though. Shelling out $5 to $20 for every game that came across my desktop would have me sleeping on the couch most nights. World of Goo is the exception to my rule practice though. It is a engineeringish puzzle game with fantastic art design and a killer carrot on the proverbial stick. Much like Peggle I always can make time for "just one more level" to the point of hours played, in the face of just a few minutes planned. I picked it up on Steam for $5 one weekend when it went on sale, where it is normally $20.

Resident Evil 5
I came on board to the Resident Evil series in 1998 with RE2. It was one of the first games I got for my PlayStation and was the first game I had an audience for while playing. It was like watching an interactive horror movie with my friends. RE5 is the first game in the series to take what was essentially a coop series by audience and make it a true coop game online. It stands on the shoulders of the last game in the series, in that it is RE4 with Africans instead of Spaniards and has coop. Where RE4 was the best looking game on the Gamecube, I would argue that RE5 is the best looking game on the 360.

Looks aside the first half of RE5 is a very enjoyable experience much like RE4. You fight "zombies" in a dense urban environment, with limited ammo and not many places to run. The recipe for actually working with your partner is in place, more so than any other coop game I have played to date. It is unplayable with out communication and coordination and I love it for that. RE5 parts ways with RE4 about half way through when there is a vehicle level and nose dives from then on. By the end of it is nearly unrecognizable from the simple formula that set it up for greatness.

Watchmen
I am new to actually reading and enjoying comics for the most part. My limited budget and passing interest before now did not result in the passion I have built up in the past year. My new foundation has been built on reading pivotal books like Batman: Year One and Watchman. The latter of which I mentioned not really getting in a previous post. None the less, I was geeked for the movie when it was first announced and upon watching subsequent trailers. Upon watching the Watchmen, I can say that it is a near match to the graphic novel. The dialouge still dominates and when there is action it is very good, but the action few and far between. At three hours, it could have used a good trip to the editing room and I can't imagine it made a ton of sense to someone who didn't already read the book. Overall it was good film, but great films don't find me looking at my watch half way through the picture.

West of North

Before I got down and dirty in paint on Saturday afternoon, I was two wheels rolling with the brothers Brick earlier that morning. With limited Landon time we decided to head west of the Northside toward Ashland. We pedaled and chatted our way just short of 20 miles (18.17) before Landon parted ways and Grant and I hit up some Bill's Barbeque (BBBQ). It was good to see Landon for a change. As busy as he is, I usually keep up through Grant updates or sporadic internet missives. Below is a very brief photo history of our journey, I really need to start taking more shots...

Landon, me and Grant

Landon and his fiancee

Rolling in Lakeside

Urban Art?

Nursery: Part 2

When we last left the nursery, two weeks ago, Crystal had secured an overhead projector and I completed the outline for the mural. Last weekend we went out to a local craft store and picked up paints and brushes, but did not get around to actually painting. So with less than a month away from the due date we started painting this past Saturday afternoon. Four hours later we ended up going out to dinner with Crystal's parents. When we returned home Crystal hit the bed and I went in to finish off the last of the first coat.

Sunday morning my body woke me up at the unreasonable hour of 9am. I guess it knew I had second coats to complete and details to wrap up. Another hour of work and the mural was complete. I still have plans to demo, paint and reassemble the nursery closet, but for now the mural is done and the results can bee seen below...

Supplies
All painted up

George, Curious George

My lovely assistant

The lighting and blurriness is terrible in these pictures, so don't be surprised if a new set show up soon.

Of the Nightfall

Sunday night I finally sat high a top my long lusted for plagued proto-drake. It has been long road of achievements that started back in November, when we first completed The Safety Dance. To Sunday night when we downed Sartharion with three drakes up. It took me just shy of four months to complete Glory of the Raider and roughly 20 or so guild members to do it. It comes with a new title (Samichez of the Nightfall) and of course the coveted proto-drake.

So, what did I do with my new 310% speed mount of glory? Why sit at the bank and stare at it for an hour. Mind you it was an hour of people sending me tells asking where I got it or congratulating our group. Doing the deed left my purse about 2,000 gold lighter after three weeks of attempts and around 4-5 different strategies for doing it. The one that finally got it for us was three tanks, three healers and no portals until all three drakes were dead. How people did it in blues back in 2008 is beyond me. It took every bit of gear and min/maxing to defeat our foe.

Our RaidComp

So, what is next? Probably a bunch of raid logging and crossing my fingers for Immortal. If we can spend a night in Naxx without dying, I may have a black proto-drake to report back on in the near future.

Grant Down!

In a week that saw ten inches of snow and temperatures in the low teens on Monday night, it was a shock to have a sunny day in the 70's. Saturday was a beautiful day to ride. It was the first shorts weather ride of the season and we got started around 11am from Mike's new pad in Southside. Our plan was to roll on the same route we did two weeks ago, that is to say Riverside east to west. We packed our things, chatted with Sarah and Mike and were two wheels rolling by 11:30. Little did we know, we would be back to their place by 12:15pm.

Departing from Mike and Sarah's

Two miles down the road and disaster

Grant was riding in my blind spot and I think I cut him off

Pedal in the leg and an abrupt end to the ride

Creepy cave on the way back to Mike's

Nursery: Part 1

We started our nursery before we even knew that we were having a baby. We wanted a baby and that was a good enough reason to re-purpose my old charcoal gray office with a can of primer and two cans of canary yellow. Once a baby was on the books we started in with the furniture and decorating. Below are pictures of the nursery as of this past weekend...

Crib and Crystal's custom shower curtain curtains
Changing table, monkey shelf and growth chart

Time to take notes?

Nope, time for a mural...

...of Curious George

Part 2 will be painting it

I hope Kaden likes monkeys...

Swimming in Media

Ever since I picked up a new iPod late last year I have been swimming in a sea of audio and video media. First, it has been nice to have the space to just store tons of data on one device. Carrying a huge song library plus enough podcast to last me until the battery gives up the ghost is a nice feeling. Second, the amount of good content that exist to what seems to be a very small niche in some cases is astounding.

A Life Well Wasted (audio)
Robert Ashley was by far the best addition to the original cast of Games for Windows Radio. His newest work is essentially the "This American Life" of video game podcast. Slick editing and music intertwined into the stories told from all over videotape culture. The is no "whatcha been playin" news of the week podcast.

This American Life (audio)
I some how caught the This American Life bug a little late into it's lifespan, in the form of the tv series on showtime. Now it that I do not have every TV channel under the sun, the audio show is a staple of my weekly listening and would be regardless of my channel options.

The Geekbox (audio)
Ryan Scott was the mute of the GFW Radio show, occasionally when he did speak up though it was worth a listen. So when he resurrected his old website and started hosting his own gaming podcast, I was at least a little interested. The crew talks games for sure, but the tangents to comics, movies and TV are what make it really worth a listen. Plus they record in a comic shop, how cool is that?

Gamer's With Jobs Conference Call (audio)
A more PC focused podcast than the other video game podcast I listen to. Pretty standard save the occasional deeper conversation about making games or the way we interact with them. The host may be a little difficult to identify when you first start listening, but you can pick up on it soon enough.

The Giant Bombcast (audio)
I started reading GiantBomb.com when 1Up was sold off to UGO and didn't start listening to the podcast until two weeks after that. Well, the site is good, but the podcast is great. It usually runs two plus hours, that may seem long, but it tends to be two hours of hilariousness. Come for the video games, stay for the disgusting energy drink taste testing and other hijinks.

This Week in Photography (audio & video)
I mentioned my affinity for amateur photographer in my last post and TWIP is my way to live vicariously through professionals. It is like being a fly on the wall at a photography...uh I don't know...some place photographers hang out. They talk shop and I like to listen.

Make (video)
DIY and hacking geek culture is a hobby I at the very least aspire to participate in. Make magazine, blog and podcast cover almost all of the bases and do it with a passion unmatched on the web. The podcast imparticular has how to videos and stories on makers around the globe every week.

I have been really slack on the blog of late, missed post and late post have been the norm. I'll try and do better, but if you need a fix my Tumblr is update regularly.

Pregnant

Crystal and I had the day off Monday because of the first big snow in three years. We spent the day in our PJ's cleaning up the house, doing laundry and working on projects in the craft room. To end the day we went to our sun room to try and take a picture worth hanging in the house proper. Above is the result of those efforts, there are tons more, but this is the first one I got a chance to pass through Photoshop to make it black and white. I consider myself a very amateur photographer and would like to take some classes one day, but for now I'll just keep snapping away. I'll try and get a whole gallery up in the coming days and link it to this post.

Kaden is just seven short weeks away now and getting more photos and videos before he comes is one of my goals. I know I will be eating gigabytes of space once he is here, but it would be neat for him to see what we were like before he came into this world.