Coffee and Code

I've got a new addiction: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland for the PS2.

Now, I'm not someone who would be classified as a hard-core gamer. (Most of the time, I'd rather write code!) The last skateboarding game I played was Skate or Die for the original Nintendo (a loooong time ago). I actually bought the game for my girlfriend, but I'm now hopelessly hooked and have the calluses on my thumbs to prove it! Here's what I love about the game:

The soundtrack:
Mostly punk rock, with some 'Hard Rock/Other' and Hip Hop mixed in. I've heard the Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, an Iggy Pop cover, Public Enemy, The Doors, and Green Day. There are many other tunes in the game not mentioned here.

The gameplay:
A smooth, graphically impressive playing experience that gives you a lot of freedom to roam and experiment. There are a ton of different trick combos! It's really funny when your player biffs. OUCH! There's also a 'Focus Mode' that allows you to slow down time Matrix-style to land your tricks perfectly.

The modes:
Among the different types of games you can play are Story Mode, Classic Mode, and Free Skate / High score. So far, I've only played the Classic Mode but am looking forward to trying the others. The game also allows you to create your own skate parks, customize players, add custom graphics, and even add your own ugly mugshot somehow.

The one thing about the game that I find annoying is when you roam out-of-bounds and the game tells you that you suck. I'm like, 'You know what? YOU SUCK!'

So there you have it. We've got a long weekend ahead - you know what I'll be doing! ;-)

I received my first issue of Make magazine this week(thanks for the subscription, Claudia!). Pretty cool stuff - It seems to cover do-it-yourself tech projects running the gamut from building your own electrical circuits to home automation. I haven't had time to read the magazine in depth, but it's a good hefty size and looks promising!

I've pretty much got a working prototype of what my new weblogger will be!!! I made the decision today to go ahead with the final project, which will be forthcoming very soon (Now that I've got all of the architectural quandries sorted out....).

Whew! I will be glad do be done with that and moving on to something else. I think it's ironic that I've spent all of this time writing a weblogger for this site when, in actuality, I'm not that in to blogging, per se. It's a convenient way of updating the website content but I'm not that into online culture and I'm not a very compelling blogger, he he. Anyway, I'm prattling on, so I'll say good day!

Now: Coding, drinking coffee.

Later: SOCOM 3, Tekken 5, gyro sandwich.

My girlfriend and I returned from Wyoming this week. We had a great trip, and it was a helluvalotta fun to meet my aunt Belle! She is an extremely interesting and cool person!

In fact, we didn't end up doing any of the typical Frontier Days stuff... I was having way too much fun getting to know my aunt and drinking WAY too much coffee! I did take a bunch of pictures though, and I will be (hopefully) posting those to Flickr soon (see below for explanation of procrastination).

I thought I would take the weekend to catch up on work (both computer-based and more mundane stuff) but that really hasn't happened yet, because I am hopelessly addicted to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. Has anyone else played this?? Is it not the most addictive game you've ever played?? If you don't hear from me in a week, send help. Seriously.

I am writing this from my brand-new, ultra-spiffy Dell Inspiron laptop, a gift from The Dark Priestess.

This is such a sleek machine - extra wide 1280x800 resolution, DVD-ROM/CD-RW, and fast. It runs Call of Duty like a champ and maaaan am I stoked.

I feel a need to spend money this weekend. What's on the shopping list? Well... A new phone with caller id... A new pair of tactical boots ($25.00 at Big 5!!!), a dresser and perhaps some new pants or something. Perhaps some Thai food is in order as well.