by Matt | Sep 8, 2003 | Imported Entry
Well, it’s Monday again, which means I actually have time to rest and relax. Not really though since Mondays are quickly becoming my “errand and chore” days. See, since people like to have weddings on Saturdays, I have to work Saturdays. Thus, I have Sunday and Monday off. Sunday you can’t get anything done because stuff either closes early, isn’t open in the first place, or you’re too busy being lazy and/or spending time with friends/family/etc. So Monday becomes my Saturday. It’s nice to have a day off obviously but I don’t get to spend it with Lauren because she’s working. Going places like the mall are nice because they’re completely empty, but it’s boring to go by yourself all the time. It’s going to take some getting used to.
Speaking of errands, today I need to go pick up my license plates and get a small crack in my windshield looked at. Stupid rocks.
Work is going well. We’re really swamped with and working very long hours to keep up. It’s both pageant and wedding season and we’re getting slammed with both. I’ll be getting a new Dell Uber System in the next few days and that’ll help speed things up a bit. A big beefy desktop with a geforce FX and 2G of memory. I’ve also gotten my boss addicted to Battlefield 1942 and both of the new Star Wars games. That system should come in handy for some lunch-break fragging.
If my parents would ever get around to it I might actually have MY system before the next ice age. It’s not really that hard to call the shipping company we’ve been talking to and schedule a pickup. Seriously. Everything, with a few exceptions, is already packed in boxes ready to go. It would take them maybe a few hours on a Saturday. Maybe.
I don’t want to seem ungrateful for everything they’ve done for me but they really don’t seem to be behind me 100% with my move to TX and with the wedding planning. Lauren’s family is paying a lot of money to get this to go off without a snag and they’re arguing with us over 4 (!) extra people at the rehearsal dinner, the only thing they actually have to pay for. Sometimes I really don’t understand them.
Lets see, oh yeah. Gaming.
I’ve gotten a free second to play the demos for both SW: Jedi Knight – Jedi Academy and Call of Duty. Jedi Academy is what Jedi Outcast should have been. It’s exactly the same game, only better. The light-saber battles are better, you have tons of character customization options, the multiplayer is more extensive and the bugs have been worked out. We got a good deal of game-play out of Jedi Outcast and I can’t see this one being any different.
Call of Duty is being hailed as the next Medal of Honor. I played through the demo and with a few small exceptions I thought I was actually playing MoH. The demo was only one level so I didn’t get a real complete look at it but it’ll definitely be worth checking when it comes out shortly.
It might not be a “one game” season after all.
Matt out.
by Matt | Sep 2, 2003 | Personal
I truly believe that there are certain foods that, when eaten, make me feel really happy. I call them “perfect foods” due to their, well, perfect nature. A Mission Burrito falls into that category. A category I might add that has only a few select things in it. This tasty mexican meal joins the ranks of a Mike’s Pastry Cannoli, a Joe Teccie’s Chicken Marsala and a Papa Gino’s BBQ Chicken pizza. Yeah, a Mission Burrito is that good. I should point out that “Mission Burrito” is also the name of the restaurant that serves these burritos. So, technically, it’s a Mission Burritos burrito. It’s honestly, and I’m not exaggerating, 7+ inches thick in diameter. It’s the size of a very large sub sandwich. It is also damn tasty. You can get it with whatever you want in it, Subway style, where you order the ingredients as they make it for you. It’s also pretty inexpensive. $5 will get you a burrito the size of you’re head. I can’t speak for everyone but I know Chip enjoys a good burrito. We’re defiantly getting one of these for lunch while everyone is here.
Ok, back to work for me. We have a portrait today and that it. Tomorrow is the day from hell and we have 3 location shoots for 3+ hours each, which means I’m working from very early morning till very late at night. It will suck… but hey, that’s what over-time is for. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I did. I’ll catch up with everyone a little later. Back to work.
Matt out.
by Matt | Aug 26, 2003 | Imported Entry
I’ve gotten a few more things out of the way in terms of wedding planning. The rehearsal dinner is booked but with a yet to be determined menu. We chose this nice little Italian place called Cecallas. Just about everything on the menu is tasty. I also got the final measurements for my tux taken care of last night. I’ll be playing the part of Rick from Casablanca in case anyone is curious. That style is called White Shawl Classic and that’s what I’ve booked. My groomsman will be in the Black Shawl equivalent. Same thing, only black.
And, just a little clarity for Chris, who has frighteningly forgotten when the date of the wedding is, it’s the 1st of November. Rehearsal dinner is the night before, the 31st. The rehearsal itself is before the dinner. Bachelor parties AFTER the rehearsal dinner would probably be ill-advised. Which means everyone might want to think about coming in a day early, if schedules permit of course. The only person with an excuse to show up late is Jason since his film will be premiered at a film festival that week. He’ll be flying in on the 31st.
So, the only thing left to confirm is the DJ (which we’ll be doing this week) and getting the invitations back from the printers (should be Monday-ish). That’s it. We’re done. I’ve also got to think up a wedding present for Lauren. I have a sneaking suspicion she’s going to get me digital turntables. Then all I’ll need a new sound card to enjoy them on and a pair of those nifty head-phones Chris has.
Let’s see, what else. I got car insurrance of my own yesterday. State Farm. My premium sucks and will continue to suck until I’m married. Then it only sorta sucks. I also picked up the new CPU Mag, PCGamer and PDN.
Oh yeah, and I’m supposed to be working right now. I’m not. I’m typing this. Paul and Carrie are away for a few days leaving the studio to me. I’m decided it needs a good re-organizing and cleaning. So that’s what I’m doing. It’s a huge studio so it might take a while, so… I should probably get back to work. At least I have digitallyimported.com to keep me company today.
Later.
by Matt | Aug 23, 2003 | Imported Entry
It seems redundant to mention that for every thing good that happens to you, something of equal or lesser annoyance (or bad luck) will also happen. For example, should you purchase a new car, it will inneviatbly get a cracked windshield from some ass-hat on the highway with a pickup truck full of loose rocks. Yeah. Continuity baby, nothing changes.
On lighter notes, a few random things happened this week that were vaguely interesting. I’ve already mentioned my tux decision (haven’t I?) this week and Monday I’m going to have it fitted. Monday I’m also going to State Farm to get my insurrance paperwork straitened out. It’s going to cost over $1000 to insure my car for 6 months. Lauren’s car, by comparison, costs her $400. I’d also like to mention that I haven’t been in an accident (my fault or otherwise) since that moron crossed the center line and killed my old mazda 3 years ago (enough time for it to come off my insurrance record says the State Farm rep). By comparison, Lauren’s been rear-ended 3 times in 6 months. Yeah… insurrance makes sense. Oh well. No sense in complaining about it today. Especially since my rate drops to somewhere between $750 and $850 once I’m married. So, I’m only paying the higher rate for a month, no biggie.
Also this week was Paul’s (the boss) birthday. His wife bought him and XBox with my help and we got him Halo and Knights of the Old Republic. I also got him a copy of Battlefield 1942 which he is now completely addicted to, in no small way thanks to me. We played Xbox on our digital projector in the studio yesterday. Playing Halo that large on the wall kicked ass. We’re planning on doing it more today.
I’ve also been eating fairly well. Lauren’s taken me out to a ton of really interesting resturants in the area. We’ve also made a few home cooked favorites over the past few weeks. I don’t think I’ve eaten this well in years. Hmm… it’s probably time to start jogging again though.
I’d also like to extend my deepest and warmest thanks to Dunkin Donuts who had the forsight to open a few stores in this very area. It’s making the transition all the easier.
Lastly, I got my order from ThinkGeek.com that contained my “I’m blogging this.” and anti-RIAA t-shirts yesterday. I was pleased. I also put a huge music order into Amazon that I should get some time next week. I’ve been dying for some different music since I’ve been stuck here with only the 6 CDs I brought with me. I ordered the new Green Day CD, the two Deep Dish after club mixes, an old Paul Van Dyk mix CD (X-mix), an older DropKick Murphys cd and a few other things I can’t remember. It should be enough to get me through to whenever I get my stuff back from NH. Which, by the way, I have absolutely no idea how to do. My parents are flying down and so are most of my relatives. As far as I know Chris and Chip are undecided in their travel arrangements and I don’t really have a vacation in the near future that I can use to drive up there and back.
That’s about it. Everyone start getting messure for tuxes and I’ll send you the link and/or phone number to call in your sizes to. That’s something we all need to take care of fairly soon I would suspect.
Alrighty. Back to work for me. Later.
by Matt | Aug 17, 2003 | Games
Well, it’s been an interesting week around here and next week will be pretty much the same. Work is, as always, all over the place. I really don’t know whats going on from day to day but I’m getting used to it. Daily we change our schedules and adapt to what needs to be done. It’s a little hectic but it’s fun at the same time. Next week is just jam packed with interesting things. Like a birthday party, an expensive dinner out, a meeting with Lauren’s minister about wedding stuff, etc.
I have been fortunate to squeeze in a little fun here and there. First off, we saw Open Range last night. It was good. You’ll have to like westerns to a)get some of the “in-jokes” and b)actually appreciate the “true grit”. Actually, the movie is quite long and Kevin Costner-ish throughout the first half. The second half is where the true western starts and it all leads up to the coolest gun fight I’ve seen on film since, well, a very long time. Probably the only comparable one I can think of was Tombstone, which, in case you haven’t been paying attention to my screen name for the past 10 years, is one of my all time favorite movies. Whether or not sitting through 2 hours of a Kevin Costner movie just to see a fan-friggin-tastic gun fight is up to you. I was glad I went.
Also, I’ve had a little time to check out some gaming goodness. Luckily my boss is also a video game fan, mostly console games but we won’t hold that against him. We’ve been trading links back and forth on a daily basis on games that we’re excited about. I will now share some of those with you.
First off is XIII, a game I probably mentioned before. It’s a completely cell-shaded 1st person shooter. I got my hands on the demo from FileShack and throughly enjoyed it. Playing a comic book was very fun. It’ll hit shelves in “Fall”. I really hate when they do that. “Fall”, great, I’ll head to the store once the weather gets cold and I’m drinking warm cider. Morons. Seriously though, check out the demo, it’s fun.
I don’t think I even have to mention how excited I am about HalfLife 2 and Halo for the PC. Whoops, just did.
There’s also BF1942: Secret Weapons of WWII which is going to kick some serious butt. I wish more people played it online so I could get in on a large 64 player game.
There’s also the two new Jedi games that I’m pretty excited about. Jedi Academy and Knights of the Old Republic look to be great fun. I know Chris was enjoying KoOR and I’m looking forward to the PC version in a few months. Jedi Academy will just be more light-saber ass-kickin’ just like Jedi Knight. That should make for some good multiplayer.
Once I get everything up and running (apartment and computer wise) we’ll have to setup a multiplayer night and see if we can’t get some long distance, Texas to New England, games going. Should be fun. I’m actually planning on upgrading or if I make enough of a commission off something I just shot, doing a whole new system just for this upcoming gaming season. Lots of interesting games coming out, and a lower-end Athlon and a GeForce 4 just aren’t going to hold up at some point. We’ll see what happens money wise. I certainly wouldn’t expect anything to work out, but on the off chance it does I’ll be building another rig.
Ok, I’m off to do some laundry and have ice cream. Later.
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