a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in
Spent most of my day playing Call of Duty: World at War (aka CoD5). It’s a fun game, and I’m glad that I finally picked it up.
Kelly peeled me away from it for long enough to run over to Kennedy School to watch The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was pretty funny. Quirky and ridiculous, but fun. Jeff Bridges even channeled a bit of The Dude in his role.
However, since it’s early enough on this Sunday evening, it’s back to CoD for a little more shooting at baddies.
Returning to work after 2 weeks of time off always means a lot of catching up to do. That means, as always, I fail to post. Sheesh. So here we go with more recappy goodness of the past couple weeks…
Kelly and I have watched a few decent films; the animated film 9, Charlie Wilson’s War, and just this evening, Michael Clayton. We’ve also continued to hang out from time to time at a recently discovered bar a few blocks from my house, NePo 42. They’ve got a decent beer selection, good grub, and free pool on a table in the back. The only downside are game nights when the Portland Trailblazers are playing (the place fills up with dudes that get drunk and like to loudly holler at the TV).
And today I freed up enough hard drive space on my PC to finally pick up Call of Duty: World at War off of Steam. Since I refuse to buy Modern Warfare 2 (no dedicated servers, no lean, etc – read more if you care), and I enjoyed the demo of World at War, I dropped my $39 on it and am currently gobbling up my bandwidth waiting for it to download and install. Game on!
After two failed attempts (sold out shows), Kelly and I finally got to see Avatar last night. We went out to a small, independent theater in Northeast Portland (Roseway Theater) where it was playing in 3D, and had the bonus of being cheaper than the big chains ($9 each, as opposed to $13.50).
In short, I enjoyed the film a lot. Sure, some of the dialog was cheesy (a couple lines were downright lame), and the story wasn’t groundbreaking, but I was immersed in the world for the full 2 hours 40 minutes, and the CG was good enough that it wasn’t distracting, even the Na’vi (the blue aliens) were. The 3D in the theater helped a lot too. It’s a fun movie. Go see it big, and in 3D.
After getting home I was so curious on how it was pulled off, so I found this short video. Pretty interesting stuff. Actors were motion captured (body and face) in a big white empty room, sometimes seeing live rough digital renderings of the Avatar world while ‘filming’. Once the actors were finished, James Cameron could wander around with a virtual camera (which plays back the rough digital render), which allowed him to record at whatever angles, motion, or distance he wanted. Pretty cool technology. Spoiler warning: If ya haven’t seen the movie, you might want to avoid the video.
Kelly forwarded this gem my way: Star Wars Meets Facebook.
OK, so, I gave up for the past 3 months. Guess I lost the love. It’s not that I don’t love the 3 or 4 of you who actually read my blog, but I just lost the love for spewing out nonsense for no particular reason. It affected my Twitter-ing too. I just felt no need for it. I could barely keep up with consuming everything coming my way (outside of my work-related duties), and just didn’t care to add the burden to myself or anyone else.
But I’m back, baby. (for now)
Here’s a recap since my last post (when I was happily relaxed on the Big Island).
At the end of October I had a birthday, and I turned 25 (again), and had the good fortune of having friends and family over to celebrate. I had a great time (I think, can’t quite remember since it was so long ago). Looking at the photographic evidence there was a lot of time spent bowling on the Wii, drinking beers, and eating fondu and other delicious treats that Kelly (and others) had made. Again, let me reiterate, I turned 25. Not 35. Nosirree. Nope.
Around mid-November, my company sent the Engineering team down to Napa Valley and San Francisco for a day/night to celebrate the latest release of our software. Had a fun time, despite the fact that I don’t have any love for wine. However, some awesome coworkers had my back, and picked up some cans of Guinness and Boddingtons for me to gulp while on the bus. Thanks guys!
Shortly after the trip to Napa, I got sick with what I can only assume to be the dreaded pigmanflu (given the fever, aches, etc). It wasn’t much fun.
Guinness is back on tap on the Kegerator (yay!).
Christmas time! Kelly and I got a nice tree this year from a daycare up the street from our house (proceeds go to help the daycare, so that makes it extra festive). Our evil cat Arthur Guinness took to climbing it repeatedly. Stupid cat. We went out to my folks place on Christmas day (as is tradition) and ate too much and opened gifts. A couple days later we went to my aunts and exchanged white elephant gifts and again ate a bit too much, and got to hang out with some of my cousins.
A couple days later I got sick again, this time with a more common cold (I blame this on Kelly, since she had it first). Sniffles, cough, bleh.
The other day, out of nowhere, it snowed a bit in PDX. And this one was unexpected and caught everyone off guard. It started around 2pm or so, and by 5pm, there was a little over 2 inches of snow in our neighborhood. Watching the news of the rush-hour traffic, the roads were a mess, especially since nobody was prepared for the conditions and loads of people got stuck trying to get in or out of town. People, including my brother, spent 8 hours or more trying to get from point A to B.
That same night, Kelly and I attended a Squirrel Nut Zippers concert in Southeast Portland (at the Aladdin Theater) which she had bought for me as a Christmas gift. We weren’t sure if we were going to bother going out or not up until an hour before the show, however I’m glad we braved the roads because it was a really fun show. We hadn’t seen them in about 5 years (since their hiatus), and they put on a really good show, putting some stylistic twists some of their old songs, and performing them all with all the fun that I expected from a SNZ show.
Tonight we celebrated New Years at our good friends T & S’s place (who fortunately live just over a mile away from us) which meant for the first time in many years we didn’t host the party. This was good primarily since both Kelly and I are still recovering from our illnesses. However we came home pretty quickly after midnight, and here I am.
Here’s to hoping that 2010 will be a better year all around than 2009.
And for some Way Back Machine-ing, here’s a quote from the Counting Crows song ‘A Long December‘ (watch the video for a younger Courteney Cox, back when she dated Adam Duritz in 1997):
And it’s been a long December and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
Happy New Years all!
Kelly and I saw Metric perform at the Wonder Ballroom, along with our friends Ty & Aymie and Miranda, meeting up beforehand for dinner in the Wonder Cafe (the restaurant in the basement of the venue). This was something of a repeat of events from the last time we saw Metric perform, back in 2006.
The show was really good, and the band (specifically the lead singer Emily Haines) were full of energy and kept the crowd buzzing. Obviously they played nearly all the tracks from the latest album Fantasies, and the single Help, I’m Alive generated a massive response from the crowd. Other tracks from the new album that were fantastic live: Satellite Mind, Gold Guns Girls, and Stadium Love.
One downside to the night was that both Kelly and I were feeling pretty tired even before the show started (the massive dinner we had probably didn’t help). By the end, we welcomed the quiet drive home. We’re like, old and stuff.
Since I realize I’ve so blatantly disregarded the ‘ol blog pretty much all month, here’s a mega-recap of the month of May.
Most of the month has been spent working some very late nights. This is largely why I haven’t written in so long. Spent several nights designing and coding some prototypes until nearly 2 AM, trying to meet deadlines. It’s been a crazy busy work month.
I finally retired Guinness from my kegerator (which I’d been pouring since October). Got a half keg of Trumer Pils going at the moment. Decent beer for the hot weather that Portland has had for the past couple weeks.
Kelly had her birthday last weekend (happy birthday Kelly!!!) and we had a super small BBQ at our house to celebrate. Really low-key, but a lot of fun. I spent the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend working in the yard for 5 hours, the house for 2, and had the BBQ that afternoon. Woke up Sunday with what I thought was merely a mild hangover. Only it got worse throughout the day. Spent the rest of the weekend with a nasty cold/flu (which I dubbed PigManFlu). My Memorial Day was spent watching TV on the couch with a box of tissues. Hrmph!
Last night Kelly and I went to see this 80’s tribute band show at the Wonder Ballroom. Three bands; Black Celebration (Depeche Mode), The Love Vigilantes (New Order), and This Charming Band (The Smiths). It turned out better than I thought it would. All three bands were competent musicians, and did a fair job at emulating the character of the originals. The clear winner for me were The Love Vigilantes, who were, honestly, better than the real New Order live (who I’d seen only once but are historically not a good live band). Fun night.
Today was yardworkapolooza. I mowed, pruned, raked, trimmed, and generally cleaned up the place. Later, my parents and brother T (and his family) came over for another dinner to celebrate Kelly’s birthday (since they weren’t able to join us last weekend). While they were over (and with the aid of my dad’s truck and chainsaw) I finally pulled the stump of the tree T helped me trim down a few months back. The stump came out easily enough since the tree was so rotted, but it meant a lot more cutting, chopping, and stacking. The upside, however, is that I have loads of wood for the outdoor fireplace.
After the tree carnage (and finally ending a total of 8 hours of me working in the 80+ degree weather), we all ate the delicious dinner my mom had lovingly prepared for Kelly’s birthday. After everybody left the house I took a nice, long shower and planted myself in a chair on the front porch with beer to write this post. Hurrah!
And there you have it. I suspect I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow. 🙂
Kelly and I went to see the new Star Trek film today, and it was very good. I wasn’t disappointed. For Trek fans, the casting, special effects, and nods to the classic TV series are all there, but the story, acting, and balance of humor, romance, and action should make the film thoroughly enjoyable for anyone. Two geeky thumbs up.
Since today is the opening day for the new Star Trek film, I thought I’d post this little gem I found via Digg.com just now. Some fella in England converted his 500 square foot flat into a very impressive (if a bit overboard) Star Trek ship interior.
Check the photos (13 in all).
The new movie started here in Portland about a half hour ago, and some of my coworkers are seeing it now. I’ll have to wait a day or two before Kelly and I will have time go watch it, but from what I’ve heard it’s pretty good and I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Oh, and none of you jokers better say a word about it to me until I’ve seen it. That is all.
After the KABOOM on Wednesday, Kelly and I saw a bit more Leverage filming Thursday on our way to work. They were filming outside the US Bank on Broadway. Nothing too exciting, loads of people, filming gear, etc, but I caught a glimpse of two of the actors I recognized from what little I’ve seen of the show (Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge).
Yesterday after work Kelly and I went to a tapas restaurant near our house for dinner called Lolo for dinner. Good food, good service, and a good atmosphere. Granted, it wasn’t massively busy (it was a Thursday after all) but the happy hour prices are worth the visit alone.
Today I worked from home since I needed to take Kelly and one of her coworkers to the airport at 10am. During the day a friend arranged a meet-up at the New Old Lompoc on NE Williams for some after-work drinks. I decided to walk the 3.25 miles there to get a bit of exercise in. After a couple beers and some good conversation with friends, I hit the streets for the walk home. Good amount of walking. My feets are now sore. Good thing I have Guinness on tap to help soothe the pain. 🙂
