|
|
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
|
|
Monday, January 28th, 2008
|
|
|
For those of you that don't know, I've taken up the art of DJing. This
past New Year's Eve I played my third live performance at a house
party. It was rad. I had an amazing time and everyone seemed to enjoy
the set. Sadly, though, I had no way of recording the mix. Until now.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present, for your entertainment, House Game
Vol. 1: NYE 2007/8. The first CD mixed, recorded, and completely
unmastered by the Antigenius. Below you will find a link to download a
.zip file of the songs in MP3 format, complete with ID3 tags (read:
tracks have information, nicely displayed in the MP3 player of your
choice). Also, for funsies, I include the set list below. This is only
the first half of the evening, just the Progressive House set. I will
be recording the Trance set as soon as I get the chance.
A couple things to note:
- I've been spinning for about 6 months, and while I think I'm progressing well, I still have some growing to do. To the end, some of the transitions are a bit off.
- I've never actually recorded anything before. So, the volume on
this album is a bit low, whereas the bass is really high. Adjust your
MP3/CD player accordingly. And half-way through track 4 the volume cuts out for a a half-second. Sorry.
House Game, Vol. 1: NYE 2007/8
- "Hands Away (Dirtyhertz Mix)," Interpol
- "Always Something Better (Trentemoller Remix)," Trentemoller
- "Just Let Go (Brooklyn Fire Retouch)," Fischerspooner
- "Breakfast (Criss Source Remix)," Balazko
- "Not Exactly," Deadmau5
- "Slow (Everybody Loves My 303 Remix)," Mr. Caine & Mr. Case feat. Kylie
- "True to Life (My Digital Enemy Mix)," Cult 45
- "Touched By God 2005 (Miss 20 Mix)," Katcha
- "Echo," Luke Dzierzrek
- "Dirty Monday," Phatjak
- "Outer Limits," Mohawk
Download (136M)
Comments and constructive criticism welcome. In my opinion, the second
half of the CD (tracks 6-11) is the best. Thanks and enjoy!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
|
|
|
I swear to God, this movie sounds so fucking emo I might actually off myself. Which, of course, would be ironic as I would likely end up in the film.
Join me in not seeing Wristcutters: A Love Story as a statement, because it sounds totally awful. Like Dashboard Confessional's latest album, whatever the crap that is.
P.S. Happy Halloween!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
|
|
|
Ridiculous? Sure, but it's part of a larger costume. I am debating wearing it to a high-level meeting later this morning.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
|
|
|
That's a taxidermied chipmunk. Oh yeah!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
|
|
|
Jesus Christ, is it just me or does Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition sound a hell of a lot like World of Warcraft?
Seriously! This page lists a bunch of information on the new edition of the game, due out this May. What really draws the parallel for me is the classes subheading of the "Specific Rules" section. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see they've broken down the roles of any given adventuring party into four types:
- Defender (fighter/paladin)
- Leader (cleric/warlord(?))
- Controller (wizard)
- Striker (rogue/ranger)
Now, I know a lot of you will mock me endlessly for even blogging on this point, but you all can get a step-ladder and jump up my butt. Basically, this is the exact break-down of World of Warcraft (WoW) party. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
To me, it sounds an awful lot like the Defender role is a lot like the tank role of WoW: a player whose job it is to make sure the monsters attack only them, thus protecting the weaker characters.
Controller sounds an awful lot like crowd control, which is the art of making sure that if the enemies outnumber the good guys, they (the bad guys) don't overwhelm everyone.
Striker is very obviously the WoW concept of "melee DPS (damage done per second, a value represent in whole numbers)." That is, characters that don't necessarily do a lot of damage with each individual attack, but, to compensate attack quickly.
Lastly, the Leader role sounds an awful lot like the "magic/long-range DPS" role in WoW. Similar to melee DPS, magic or long-range DPS characters are players that use magic spells to cause damage from a distance. I would associated these two due to the fact that a leader generally stands back from a group, directing their actions and commanding them while attacking when necessary.
A lot of you won't really care about the above, but I hope the following makes a bit of sense.
The question stands, then, why would Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), so blatantly rip-off the World of Warcraft party scheme? I can think of one reason: revenue. More specifically, the revenue potential of the currently 7+ million subscribers World of Warcraft enjoys.
Let's do some simple math. First, let's assume that everyone who plays the new 4E D&D buys the Player's Handbook, a pretty stand-alone book that can get anyone into the game. My 3.5E hardbound (the books only come in hardback) Player's Handbook runs $30 new. So, assuming they are able to tap into the 7M players of WoW and assuming those 7M players only buy the Player's Handbook (there are also two other books, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual, which are very handy for the game), that puts us at:
7M * $30 = $210,000,000
That's a lot of fucking money. But that's kinda the wrong reason to release a new edition. Sure, if you have significant changes to the ruleset then release a new edition, but 3E came out in 2000 with 3.5E following within 3 years. So, in 2008 we'll have an additional edition? That's 3 new editions in less than a decade. Prior to that we had 2 editions released in twenty years.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the changes to me are very evidently money-oriented, not game- or player-oriented. Christ, even the 3.5E changes could have been a $10 errata chapter sold separately. So to have them dropping this bomb on us, it's sort of infuriating and ridiculous. The thinly veiled "cash in on WoW" scheme is just a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I think trying to capitalize on that market is a good call. But the manner in which it's approached is totally wrong (see the D&DInsider offering from the link above).
It's just a bad call. First Eberron and now this? I guess the silver lining is that all the 3/3.5E supplements will be liquidated.
|
|
Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, September 24th, 2007
|
|
|
I have no idea why Netflix recommended the 1989 film Tetsuo: The Iron Man and I don't entirely know how to feel about it. I reminded me a lot of Cronenberg if Cronenberg were Japanese.
Rather than explain what the movie is about, I present you with this list of notes I took while watching the film:
- girl squeezes tit till it explodes
- awesome industrial music
- protagonist looks like every nerdy/conservative Japanese male in anime, ever
- good stop motion scenes, some similar to Amelie
- Giger-esque strap-on
- why is everyone always sweaty?
- drill penis/ "sewage pipe"
- cats and fish should not be fused to coffee cans
- when you come back from the dead the Crow does your eye makeup
That's probably enough since the film itself is only 67 minutes long.
I should tell you now, I have not gone all Sarah Michelle Gellar nor Japotard on you (when someone co-opts culture not their own with fanatic zeal, they are a Culturetard with Japotard and Italotard being very specific and Eurotard being more general). I don't pursue the craziest of other cultures in an effort to seem edgy or hip or even to shock people. I can do that on my own without the help. I do, however, have a deep abiding love of art. Even art I don't "get." And, kids, I only kinda get this movie. At least it made more sense to me than Eraserhead did.
So, I recommend it to those of you that are Japotards, Eraserhead fans, industrial music fans, or just want to see an interesting and incredibly well filmed (as far as cinematography goes) movie (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) xjuggernaughtx, you should probably check it out), then check out Tetsuo: The Iron Man. If anything in my list above freaked you out, you probably aren't friends with me or are, at this moment, reconsidering our friendship ;)
|
|
Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 21st, 2007
|
|
|
At what point does having a crush on a fictional character become creepy? I understand that the actress, while attractive, is likely nothing like the character she portrays. But, does there come a time when I should seek professional help? Honestly, I'm starting to get worried.
How many of you have had a crush on a fictional character?
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, September 10th, 2007
|
|
|
Why do I sometimes do the things I do? Is it because of misinformation? Are nefarious forces at work that you or I can't perceive with our mundane sense? Is there any reason to my actions at all?
In short, yes. I do a great many of these things because I love you. I love you so much it hurts and, out of that love, comes a deep, abiding urge to protect you from the wrongs in this world. To be your first and last line of defense against those evils to which you are otherwise laid bare. Because I do love you and because someone needs to protect you.
The evil I protect you from today is Budweiser's latest entrance to the adult beverage market: the Budweiser Chelada. Now, it was news to me that the chelada is hardly a new beverage. In fact, as Wikipedia was so kind to point out, an actual chelada sounds pretty Goddamn delicious: fill salt-rimmed glass with ice, add juice of one or two limes, add dark Mexican beer, and enjoy. What's not to love about that? It's like a margarita, but less punishing. Why, then, did Bud have to go and fuck it up?
The outside of the can says it all: "Budweiser and Clamato." Clamato? What the hell? How did we go from "salt and limes" to "tomatoes and clams?" Even more disturbing is the can's promise that this is, in fact, "the perfect combination!" No shit? Far be it from me to judge, but it seems like tomato juice, clams, and crappy beer is about as far from "the perfect combination" as you can get without affronting God and Ganesha.
But, what the hell? I love you and the flavor combination does sound intriguing enough that you might try it. So, I crack the can and sniff (because that is a trait common amongst males in my family), in order to determine whether the substance has gone bad. Despite the "Born On" date, I still don't trust it. So, I take a whiff and am greeted with a sort of odd combination of water, beer sweat squeezed from a bartop cocktail napkin, and loneliness. Yup! That's Budweiser.
But, I'm not drinking this crap without first seeing it. I bust out one of the pint glasses I stole and fill it. Words cannot describe the horror so, instead, I present you with this:
Things that are wrong with that picture:
- I am holding the glass up to the light, but you cannot see through it.
- The fluid holds little resemblance to either of the base fluids it is made of.
Oh my Christ, what have I gotten myself into? I mean, I love you. I really do. But this seems a bit far. Like Santa leaving coal in your stocking only to beat you senseless with it.
Wary of my prey, I engaged it in a stare-down. It must know I am stronger and, thus, the victor in this battle:
Due almost entirely to my incredible sideburns, the Chelada backed down and I raised the glass, firing off a short prayer to my colon hoping my sudden faith would halt it evulsing my entire GI tract. Bottoms up? And...
Seconds pass in an eternity of silence...
Nothing. It just tastes like Budweiser, which is kind of a let down. I smell the drink again, wait, then take another sip assuming some critical mass need accumulate before catalyzing a chain reaction of "flavor bursts." Sadly, nothing it me. I put the pint down on the counter, dejected, and pick up the can to see if I needed to shake it or add my own clams or something.
And then it hits me.
Loved one, the evil of the Chelada is perhaps the most evil kind of evil. It is subtle. It sneaks up on you. You sip it and encounter almost nothing yet as I sit here writing, I can still taste the horrid combination of tomatoes, clams, and shitty hops. The aftertaste of this vile substance is probably one of the most veiled evil things I have known and I can't get it to go away. I've brushed my teeth twice already and every time I burp (which has been several times) it comes right back.
So, please, don't imbibe this foul drink. I did it because I loved you enough to find out. To find out if this was the attack on humanity I suspected. It is. It is that and so much more.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
|
|
|
|
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize in advance, honey. I'm really sorry about the dutch ovens, but I figure it evens out all the times you take me shopping for shoes or whatever.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, August 31st, 2007
|
|
|
Energy 92.7 is San Francisco's dance music station. In general, I love the music the play. Every once in a while, though, they play something that falls significantly outside their norm. Sometimes it bugs the crap out of me. Other times it's a pleasant surprise.
Like today, when it was "Friday, I'm in Love" by The Cure. Awesome.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
|
|
|
You gotta wonder what the marketing/PR team was thinking when they named a product:
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, August 25th, 2007
|
|
|
|
It always amazes me how the ending of The Office (UK version) gets me every time.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
|
|
|
I'm currently grooving to Absurd Mind's The Focus which I purchased years ago when I was still in college. I loved it then, but haven't listened to it in two years (thnk you iTunes "last played!"). As I listen to it now, cracked out of my fucking gourd on coffee, I'm realizing the lyrics are way more philosophical than I originally thought and how applicable they are to me in my life right now.
Just serendipitous. I'd smile if the caffeine didn't have me clenching my teeth.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, August 18th, 2007
|
|
|
In my previous post I mentioned growing a "go live" beard. Nerdy, I admit, but growing facial hair is hobby of mine (also nerdy). Anyway. Here's a photo update in the style of MySpace Emo/Scene Kids:
Weeks of Growth: 2 Weeks (est.)
Time till Go Live: 6 Weeks, 2 Days
Irritations/Problems Introduced By Beard:
- women still don't talk to me, beard not helping in that department
- takes about 20 minutes to fall asleep because beard is still scratchy
- mustache catches food
- seven years out of high school, beard still grows in like a freshman's
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
|
|
|
Works been a bear lately. We're implementing an Oracle-based ERP solution (Oracle E-Business Suite, which I hope to topple with my Small Business Suite, but that's for a later discussion). What this means is I'm usually in meetings all day. Then I get to go home and do my day job (since I was in meetings all day). The end result is I've been working 60+ hours for the last few weeks, maybe months. It's hard to remember. I don't get much sleep.
The good news? "Go Live" is Oct. 1. In honor of that I am growing a "Go Live Beard." Like the hockey playoff beard, but nerdier.
Stay tuned for pictures.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
|
|
|
Seriously. Without the internet, this kid would just be some random granola-eating, Oregon hippie douchebag listening to Phish stoned out of his mind* in 15 years.
*I fucking know not all people hailing from Oregon are granola eating hippies, but it's funnier if I reduce the lot of them to stereotypes They all eat granole and use Tom's of Maine and everyone here in California is gayer than a gymnast on shore leave. (All previous links NSFW!)
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Dear Internet,
I wish it to be known that I am one of the 3,582 living adults capable of bearing the title "Functional and Contributing Member of Society at Large Due in No Small Part to Self-Actualization." This number excludes persons under the age of 21 as well as those above the age of 21 incapable of caring for themselves without reasonable assistance.
My reasons for this are many and varied. Contact me privately should you need an explicit example. However, it stands to reason that most of you know this already. You also know if you, too, bear that title.
Those of you who believe me to be cocky or self-involved, answer me this: why do you call me names when it's glaringly obvious to everyone else you just want to be like me?
Sincerely,
Matt
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
There are so very many things in life that I feel I will never understand, and I don't know if this is something that should comfort or distress me.
It has been a very long time since I wrote last. By choice, I am a software engineer. My daily life consisting of observing the world, the people in it, and then breaking down into simple, easily understood steps, the actions I've witnessed. While it is a tedious and, sometimes, excruciatingly boring process, I love it. At times, though, it taxes my creativity and urge to write and I am often the subject of lingering bouts of writer's block (if I could be called a writer). Then, without warning, some muse strikes me and the impetus to write is there.
I revisited the site Sutro Baths earlier today. I hadn't been in some time. Not since my article had been published in the online magazine Lost. As I walked around and took yet another roll of photos of the ruins I'd accidentally discovered and chronicled, I found myself asking the question posed in the article I'd written: does mystery remain when ruins are assigned a history?
The very obvious and literal answer is no. By definition, you cannot have both understanding and mystery tied to the same thing. Beyond that, though, does a person or place or event hold the same mystical wonder when we understand it from all angles? When I first found the Sutro Baths and in the several trips I made back in the months following, I was always filled with the same sense of wonder. Sure, someone had to know what had happened here, but the excitement lay in my not knowing. The draw was that I was free to make any associations I wanted. In writing that article I destroyed the magic that brought me there. There's no wonder left because I know too much about what happened there.
Today on that rocky beach at Land's End I didn't see rusting iron bones, there weren't remnants of panes that once protected swimmers from the icy chill of the Pacific wind, and I didn't wonder what drilled an oddly circular hole through over 50 feet of rock. There was only simple plumbing, long since left to nature's whim. Scattered shards of old beer bottles from kids drinking in the relative secrecy of public park not patrolled by police. And only a hole blasted into a rock with dynamite.
There are a great many things in life I will never understand. Some of the may cause me distress and some of them may comfort me. I only hope that I have the presence of mind and wisdom to recognize which is which.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I am not well. I don't mean this in the alarming sense that there is something wrong with me. I suffer from no ominous disease. It is likely something simple. However, whatever it is, I stayed home from work today and I have just woken up from an interesting dream.
With me, in the dream, were two women. I'd give them names if I remembered them, but, as dreams often go, I'm not entirely sure I ever really knew their names.Regardless, one was a friend who I think was an actress and the other a romantic interest and may or may not have been famous. The three of us were walking somewhere, talking about random things, when The Friend had to go. As she ran off I yelled, "I love you." She came back over and said, "I love you too." We hugged and I said, "In case we never see each other again, have a great life." We smiled at each other and I said, knowing she was an actress, "Well...I'll be seeing you around." She laughed and we parted ways.
The Romantic Interest and I walked around more and talked. As time went on I began to realize she had to leave, too. I remember there being a good reason for her to go, but it escapes me now. I told her I loved her and she smiled. I don't remember if she said she loved me, but we discussed how we might be able to maintain a relationship. Since she was moving far away (Canada, I think), we decided friendship was best though she agreed if she were staying we would be dating. I cried, but understood that she had to go. We never kissed or hugged, but we did smile at each other and parted ways.
And thats it. Normally, I'd be apt to say this doesn't deserve much analysis. It's just a dream, after all, and dreams generally seem to be effected by our everyday life. For example, I've had dreams about deserts after watching the movie Dune and I've had dreams about being in a bar with a pool table the same night that I've played pool. What strikes me as odd about this dream, though, is that of all the elements I can remember (I really need to get a dream journal), I don't recall experiencing any of them in my waking life. To me, that indicates the dream merits some analysis.
So I pose this question to you, intrepid reader: what does it mean to say I love you to two women, one a friend and the other a romantic interest, and have them both leave?
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
annoyed.
happy.
bouncy.
pensive.
curious.