Now, as many of you know, I’m not overly eloquent.. I’m not a professional blogger like most of my counterparts.. especially when I get excited.. so please bear with me in this blog post as I rant and ultimately rave about why I’m excited about the next couple weeks..

First, I have to be upfront about this.. I’m going to be talking about Games.. that’s right.. What’s just around the corner?  Christmas.. and with that.. November and December have turned into BIG game release months.. there are several high priority titles coming out, like Skyrim, COD: MW3, Uncharted 3 and many others..

I, myself will not be getting Skyrim until it hits the “Greatest Hits” collection as I didn’t really enjoy Oblivion, I wasn’t going to waste 60$ on a game I probably wouldn’t like very much.  20$ however, I might part with to play.

The first game that has already hit the shelves but has me excited is U3.. We all know about Drake and his exploits.. th

is is the third game in the series, and probably the last unless Naughty Dog can come up with something SPECTACULAR for another sequel.  I would, however, love to see a live action movie try to be made (Yes, with Nathan Fillion in the role of Drake.. it’s a given).  I’ve heard this iteration of the game is a rehash of 1 and 2.. with a new story line.. For me.. that’s cool.. Uncharted is what got me into FPS games.. I’ve never been one to play FPS type of games, outside of the classics like Doom and such.  I resisted getting Uncharted for a long long time.. I bought it for a 9.99 special at Best Buy.. I figured.. 10$ isn’t so bad, and if I don’t like it.. I’m not out all that much.. Man I couldn’t have been more wrong.. The game was awesome, it lived up to the hype it got.. and it was one of the few games I have actually finished.. it kept me engaged enough to want to play it .. and had cut-scenes that, albeit there were a lot, weren’t overly annoying to the game-play.. gave you time to get a cup of tea or whatever.. Then came U2, and now U3.. I’m still in the process of playing U2.. so I won’t have a review of U3 until I get that finished.. And yes I will be getting Uncharted: Golden Abyss for my Vita when it’s released

Next on my list, and coming out soon will be the newest Assasins Creed, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.  Now as I said before, was never really into these types of games.. but Uncharted really did spark my curiosity for these games.. once again.. got the original AC on a special at Best Buy.. Same reasoning.. and let me tell you .. not only did the game blow me away, the visuals were breathtaking.. I love how it transported you back in time.. and made you almost feel like you were there.. I like it so much, that once again.. I actually finished it.. (or I have almost finished it, I can’t rightly remember these days).  I have also bought AC: II and have this third one on Preorder from our Gaming Overlords at GameStop, as they upgraded the “version” for free.  I’m really excited for this game, because not only did they add more and more content, the visuals are just getting better and better.. Once again, no review until I can get through AC and AC: 2.. yeah when I play series games, I actually play them in series..

Onward we go into my the next game that’s got me writting this post.  That would be, Zelda: Skyward Sword.  Now I’ve always been very vocal about my love for Zelda.. after playing it on the NES all those years ago (top down, 8 bit.. love it), I’ve always vowed I’d buy any Zelda game that was made.  And so far I have.. I just recently acquired Ocarina of Time: 3D and Twilight Princess.   Now will this get me to play my Wii more?  Only to play this and Twilight Princess.  Will this get me to buy a Wii-U?  Only and I stress only if there is a Zelda game that requires me to do so.. I do love Zelda, and that being said.. yes I had to buy the special edition with Gold Wii-Mote.. why wouldn’t you?  When Spirit Tracks came out (which I’m still playing BTW) I got a special Stylus from NOA, that was pretty darned cool. Now that I have explained my love for Zelda, I have to express my jealousy over Jimmy Fallon for getting this awesome pre-release of a link statue:
This thing is freaking awesome..and knowing that, I’ll probably never ever be able to afford the thing, but I do think it would look AWESOME sitting on my shelf.. I wish the Wii had a little better graphics chip-set, something that could do this franchise more justice than the blocky graphics, that I feel, are worse than the 3DS.. I’ll be definitely playing this (trumping all other games) when it comes out on Nov 20th..

Now onto my RPG’s.. Many people know that I’m a WoW addict.. I have quit it several times, only to come back and play.. I have bought the special edition sets of the last two expansions, and probably will for the newest one that’s coming out.. I mean pandas.. who doesn’t love ‘em?  With that we come up to is Guild Wars 2.  Yeah Guild Wars was a good game, but there was something about it, other than loosing my install discs, that made me just not give with the world.. I’m not sure what it was.. but when I look at all the trailers for the upcoming 2nd version of the game, it makes me squee just a little.. it looks like it will be a lot of fun, and will fill my  need to try “Another MMO” .. I know, it’s not in the upcoming release window, it’s sometime in 2012.. but I just had to mention it.. I don’t know much more about the game than what I ‘ve seen in game-play videos, so I’ll reserve judgement until I get my grubby hands on it and give it a good play..

Now, I know there are lots of other games coming out.. Inlcuding BioShock: Infinate, and yes I own the other two, that will tickle me a little to play, but they don’t have my attention like the ones above do..

Now wait, you might be saying, if you are such a big MMO person, where is  your gleeful rant about Star Wars: The Old Republic.. Well let me tell you.. I have never been a Star Wars Fan, so the story line isn’t probably to my liking.. and I was burned with the Rift Preorder (yeah that game was not my cup of tea, every once in a while I re-activate and play and promptly cancel again), but I will be playing this weekend in the Stress Test Weekend, so I’ll be able to see if it lives up to all the hype that BioWare and Atari have been giving it.. I hope it does… The franchise is strong and needed a good game, the last few for the SW Galaxy (pun intended) have been a pretty poor showing..

We now that you have fallen asleep .. I shall return you to your regular scheduled day.. enjoy..

So.. Zelda Skyward Sword is coming out soon.. and I was thinking.. I need a new avatar (possibly a new tattoo).. so .. I fired up my good friend Cinema 4D and got to work..

Took me a couple hours with lighting (I was never good at lighting) and came up with this.. Glen Southern helped me with a few sticking points I had with looping the knife tool.. found out I shouldn’t ever make hard points if I want to knife..

I had lots of fun making this and hope to make more in the future..

Here’s a few renders, plus the wires if anyone is interested.. please contact me if you would like to use the image..

Hello again everyone..

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.. and a lot has happened..

I lost a dear friend that I worked with at TCR… Most of you already know how I felt about him and the hard time that came after his passing.. I’m now doing some work at Theatre Cedar Rapids that he did whilst he was there.  I only  hope to be compentant enough to fill a fraction of what he did.

Now with that being said, there’s lots to come this year.  This Wednesday (Jan 19) I go and turn in my application to be a Volunteer Firefighter.. I’ve always wanted to either be a Vol FF or a Reserve Cop.. this is the only one the wife would let me try.. So, here’s hoping that I get accepted.  The Station is close to my house, but serves a township (as most volunteer departments do).  If, for some reason I don’t get accepted, there’s another Station up the street some more that I can try to apply at, but who knows if one drops me, both might.. Here’s hoping

Lots of development already in the new year, so hopefully I’ll have some more info to share on that front too.

I will try to check in more often and let everyone know about the Firefighter thing here in the next couple weeks.

Once again.. now that a lot of my work is clearing up, and I have some extra time on my hands I’m going to get dirty with 3D again.. I know I know.. I start and stop it all the time.. but I need to do something creative.. and I need to get creative.. and what better way?

So.. my friends have all given me lots of good ideas.. I know LW and Silo pretty well.. Maya has always been my favorite.. so I might try that again.. as well.. I’ve been hitting blender  hard lately, trying to learn the new layout and quirks in 2.55 beta.  As well, a dear friend of mine is also tutoring me in Cinema 4D.. Currently I only have the demo, so I can only do so much, but it’s an interesting program and I do like that interface..

Hopefully here soon, I can show some tests from blender and C4D and get cracking on making organics, which I’ve never been able to do in any program.

For the future, I’ll probably focus on C4D more than Blender.. Blender has a great community and well.. it’s free.. but I’m really waiting for it to come OUT of beta before I really start to hit it hard.. and the 2.4 interface, I just don’t want to learn it.. the 2.5 interface is much better and I enjoy it more..

That being said.. The next few weeks I’m going to be tinkering and trying to finish a project I have sitting on my plate..

If anyone has suggestions as to what “objects” (hard model right now only) I should try to do .. remember 1) I’m a n00b yet still.. and 2) I don’t have hours to do this.. so smaller objects would be appreciated, hopefully around the first of the year.. I’ll be able to devote a good portion of my time toward this endeavour.

Well well.. yes I’ve been a little slacky when it comes to my posting.. I realize this, but the past few months have been pretty busy for me here at casa de…. well me..

First off, let me start by saying I did keep the nook and it’s a wonderful device for what it does.. especially after the newer firmware.. it is pretty darn kewl.. And I really like it.. that being said, I do have to admit that I got an iPad.. and yes I do love that too.. let me tell you, for regular books however, I’d probably use the nook, but for my technical books, even tho they look pretty darned good on the nook, I’d probably read them on iBooks just because the code blocks and sample pictures are easy to read and understand… I do like the iPad almost 10″ of wonderful goodness.  Yes there are many people that say it is essentially a large iPod, which in general I’m sure it is.. but movies, books and other things are much better on the iPad than I though they would be.. I do love it

On to my next endeavour, I have been busy with some local volunteering.  Our Theatre (TCR) re-opened the flood torn building we used to be in, so that took up a few months of my time as well as working with the Cedar Rapids Rollergirls.. these ladies are a blast to work with, and are alto of fun.. if any of you live in Cedar Rapids, I highly suggest getting downtown (or even if they are away) and seeing a bout.. it is a wonderful night of entertainment and a good damn sport too.

You can find thier season schedule on thier website (at least you can tomorrow when I promote it into production).  Go see a bout..

Now onto my final point for this long post.  I’ve been saying for years that I wanted to get a tattoo and I believe that everyone in my family thought that I was never going to do it, but after talking with some of the Roller Girls (wait… maybe they are bad influences) I found a pretty good damn tattoo artist to do me a medical tattoo.  She works for Lefty’s Tattoo parlor in Lindale Mall.  Wonderful place, stop by and see ‘em if you are thinking of getting work done.  See I hate wearing jewelry.. the only thing I wear is my wedding ring usually, so I thought.. what better way to let the medics know that I’m a diabetic, than to permanently get it etched into my skin.. Nice thing, I’ll never loose it (easily)..

Well that brings my ranting to an end.. in summary.. TCR is back, Roller Girls RAWK and I have a tattoo (and plan on getting more).. Maybe this is my mid-life crisis.. but I hope not, I prefer to spend that on video games

This, the beginning of 2010, has already heralded a few announcements of new eBook Readers at CES.  Alex was touted about, the Nook is still back-ordered, Sony has the Daily Edition and more.

I recently picked up the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, so I could use it as an ebook reader.  Well I’ve had it a little under 24 hours and have been very frustrated with it so far.  What this thing can do is LIMITLESS, with android and the Internet..  I thought this could be a contender for any ebook reader.  It’s small, it has an awesome screen.  It has an eBook reader.  It has Multimedia capabilities and WiFi.

My hopes were violently trashed as I tried to setup this device.  First, I could connect to WiFi on my home network, but I couldn’t actually get anywhere.  Due to this fact, I had to download the newest firmware manually and side load it into the device.  The update was easy and no problem have happened there.  With new firmware in hand, I try WiFi again.. Still no network connection, regardless that it has a local IP.

I took this device to work and was FINALLY able to connect to the WiFi network.  Now, mind you, I have another WiFi device sitting right next to it (my iPhone).  Both had a network connection, however the Archos would continually DROP the wifi connection, forcing me to manually reconnect every time.  I was able to get to the Internet, update Appslib (Archos’ Android Marketplace) and download the eBook Reader (Aldiko).  However, 70% of the time (with an active WiFi Connection) I was getting a “Network Error”

Archos 5 Reading a Book

Once I finally got my eBooks on this device, they look wonderful.  I did however have issues of the device just shutting itself off, and having to reboot, clear cache and restart what I was doing.

All the issues I am having with this device is thinking, I should just return this and wait for the Alex, or maybe get the  Nook. The reason I got this device, was that it was the same price as the nook, I thought it would do it all.. but more and more I’m just getting frustrated!

I figure, by the end of this year, I’ll have tried EVERY popular eBook reader, in my futile attempt at the perfect reader.

More to come…

Okay.. So for a while, I’ve been watching the eBook front.

Heck I even bought a Kindle DX, but have since returned it.  I’ll explain a few things I’ve found out doing some research and reading on the net.

Now the kindle.  The kindle was a nice piece of kit, it was big it had a keyboard.. it was nice.  The only thing, I didn’t like exactly how it worked with PDF’s.  But the rest was nice, the wireless was nice, however I usually had it turned off.  e-Ink and display were nice, and of course, it’s amazon.

Now, after doing some reading on the Nook, I’ve found out.. Yes it has a native PDF reader but you can’t annotate PDF’s.  Well that kind of bites.  I was also able to play around with the hardware a bit at B&N tonight.  The display was nice, it did seem a little sluggish when refreshing, but I don’t expect it super speedy.  The color screen seemed.. cumbersome.  It mis-registered finger clicks, the swiping action, when I was using it, reset the swipe every time I tried to swipe the list of options .. So I would swipe up, and the option my finger was under popped to the bottom, and then screened up.. I had to do this 4 times, before I got a “page”.  That kinda put me off.

Now after reading about the Sony 600 Touch, and playing with it quickly at target, I seem to like the interface on that a bit.  Wireless is not a deal breaker for me, but would be a nice touch.  The screen was nice and quick, and it responded well to finger swipes and touches.  I have read online that the Sony Reader allows annotations in PDF’s (Nook and Kindle do NOT), which I think is a selling point for me.. I plan on keeping alot of my books on the SD cards anyway (the Kindle does not take SD cards, the nook takes microSD cards, but you have to take the back off to load it, above the SIM Card).

I have a SD card full of PDF’s I’d like to try, but Targets display blocked the SD Slot.  Best Buy’s display took the SD card and said “Reading Card” but the display unit wouldn’t go out of “Demo” mode, so I’m going to have to ask the staff if they will allow me to see a demo unit that works.  But for the buck, at this time I’d pick the 600 at this time for my styles of eReader.  The Sony has more options of “reading” formats, it has the nice touch and (from what I hear) good PDF support.  I’m sure Sony will come out with a wireless enabled device next year (pending contracts I’m sure).  However, Alex, iLiad and the Que readers coming out next year.  So I’m trying to decide if I should wait, or use Best Buys return policy to “try” the Sony Reader.  It’s on sale ( or was today ) for 20$ off.

If I decide to try the Sony, I will definitely have a review here, stay tuned.

UPDATE: I just found out that the eReader Daily Edition (which launches next week, the 18th), is 100$ more and offers 3G wireless (AT&T) and still a touch screen.  All in a 7″ reader.  Might be a contender.

Well it’s been a few weeks since my last post.

During that time, I’ve had a few more small occurrences of my vertigo and something else, no one can seem to figure out.  I’ve had this problem for almost a month now, CT Scan was normal, more tests to come.. there are good days and there are bad days.  I just wish there were more good days.

On a lighter note, I’ve recently picked up a sock knitting book, hopefully I can get to this sometime soon.. the problem I have is finding good sock yarn.  I’m looking for a nice set of yarn, also I’m looking for some Red/White self striping yarn as well.. I checked knit picks and a few other places, but have not been able to find some.

As well, I’ve finally got all the books in the InkSpell trilogy.  I’m hoping to start those soon, however I’m really slow in reading, so it might be a while yet before I get them started.
After that I’m hoping that I can get the Alosha Series to read that, book #2 of that series, is really hard to find.. so I hope I can find that.

On the forseable future, I have a few web projects that are closing down here soon.  As well, I have a new LW projects (maybe silo too) that I want to start up, I have a friend that’s going to help me with this one.  Maybe two friends.

Not much more new to report right now, however, still got more med tests and more doctors to tell me, “We don’t see anything wrong”.

Well another year has gone by, yes yesterday was my Birthday (yay Bastille Day).  I think I’m starting to feel the 32 years I’ve been around, as will be witnessed by what I’m talking about this week..

First, let me just say, that I love fried foods.  Moz Sticks, Provago Wheels, French Fries, Donuts.. it doesn’t matter, I’ll eat just about anything fried.  So, what better way to merge two of my favorite things, into one.  I found a “Fried Twinkie” recipe on the interwebs and thought I’d try it out.  I’ve heard these are supposed to be the bomb-diggity, so why not.

Okay .. Let me just say, this was the WORST food for you ever.  This thing, I’m sure, would kill a rhino!  The batter was good, the gooey-ness of the twinkie inside was awesome.  However, the heaviness of this thing I could tell was just choking off my arteries.  It was a pretty good treat.. but the recipe called for making 6, and no one else would try them, so I felt compelled to eat three of these things… needless to say I was sick for the rest of the night!

Next, can I just say that I used to LOVE wrestling, when I was a kid.  WWF, WWE or whatever it’s called now, I can see kids enjoying for entertainment value till about their 20′s (past that, I dunno).  I myself, do not consider myself a sportsman by any means either.  Loathe most of the normal sports (basketball, baseball, bad-mitten, what have you).  But let me just say if you EVER get the chance to see a bout of roller derby, DO IT.  This was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  These girls were good sports and they worked HARD at what they do.  You wouldn’t think that skating for 20 minutes at a time is very taxing, but just go watch these girls work out.  It was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen since ABC’s Wipeout.  And our girls trounced the Chicago Crew by 70 points.  I’m definitely hooked, and think I will be getting tickets for every bout that I can!

Finally, on the gaming front, I finished Ghostbusters (on my birthday) on the casual “portion” of the game.  The game was pretty awesome, and I will have a review coming here soon for that, but I would suggest it to anyone who liked the movie, was just as funny.  Good to know that Aykroyd has not lost his touch!

Hello everyone..

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve talked to everyone, I was in the hospital last week (sun – wed) with BPPV.  My type was what the therapist coined: “Extreme Horizontal Vertigo”.  Basically I had vertigo spells when I turned my head either left or right, and they would last for more than 2 minutes.  If you’d like more information on BPPV, jump here.

BPPV Canals

So far, we haven’t gotten any re-occurence of the BPPV, however they say that it’s a 10% chance that I will have it flair up again this year.

On a more positive note, more info about my world.  I have sent the Kindle back.  It was too much money for not enough return.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’d recommend it to people, I thought it was a great device, however I guess it just wasn’t the right time to get an eReader for me.

On another positive note, we had our Insurance adjuster out to see the damage caused by the storm, we have gotten a check to fix the work and we should be getting that going pretty soon, however we may be displaced for a couple of weeks during renovations.  Seems like most of the house will be replaced after this.

And on a closing note, I’ve started to do some modeling again, I’ll try to show some pics when I get them finalized.. nothing big.. nothing major.. just some “tests” to make sure I remember how to do this stuff.