3:51 PM
Halloween was pretty fun when I was a kid.
Then I grew up, and I realized that candy's cheap and I can buy any candy I want, any time I feel like it.
When I moved into my own house I started to get excited for Halloween again because I'd actually be on the candy-giving side of the transaction. That was fun for about 30 minutes.
Having the doorbell ring every 30 seconds is kind of a pain! You can't watch TV, you can't play video games, you can't take phone calls, and you can't even carry on a conversation with anyone else in your house. You're pretty much tethered to the front door all night long.
Tammy's in Montreal this week so tonight I won't even be able to poop.
I could be a bastard and just turn all my lights off, but we all know what happens to people who turn their lights off. Kids would just bang on the door and ring the bell anyway. I might even end up with some toilet paper or eggs on my front door as a bonus. No, turning your lights off on Halloween is no option.
It's not that I hate kids. Or even giving candy to kids. It's just that I'm accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and getting up from my oh-so-comfortable oversized couch every 30 seconds to answer the door is disruptive to that lifestyle.
11:35 AM
The 360's Fall dashboard update is coming tomorrow. The complete list of changes is here. Nothing too earth-shattering this time around. There's that whole 1080p thing, of course...And support for the wireless headset!
8:19 AM
Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year. In fact, it's tomorrow! I'd better stop at Costco after work today to pick up some candy. If there's any left, that is. Jeesh!
12:20 PM
I think Chris Isaak and I could be really good friends.
I mean, I don't know much about the guy, but he seems pretty mellow. I'm pretty mellow.
I like his music too.
He could come over to my house for dinner, or maybe just to hang out, or maybe we could play some video games.
Then I'd ask him why his TV show is on Showtime, a pay-cable station that nobody gets. I'd explain to him that basic cable or even HBO would be better for his career and would allow him to reach a much larger audience.
I could totally help him with lyrics for his new songs, and in appreciation he would shower me with all the gifts a big-name recording contract can buy.
He'd run his new material by me and I'd be like "Chris. That is a great song. Tammy just fainted for cryin' out loud. You need to put that track on your next album." Then he'd be all "I don't know, Brett. I don't feel like it's the right sound." Then I go "Dude. It totally is. You're a friggin' idiot if you don't see how perfect that song is for your next album. It's Billboard Top 10 material right there. Don't be stupid. Christ."
Then he'd go "See, that's why this friendship is so great, Brett. You treat me like I'm not a celebrity - like I'm just a regular guy. You're not afraid to get in there and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I like your moxie and I'm gonna lay down that track just for you. I'll call it 'My Pal Brett'."
Sure enough, six months later 'My Pal Brett' hits #7 on the Billboard charts.
3:58 PM
There is a brain disorder out there called spasmodic dysphonia. The symptoms vary a bit from person to person, but if you're diagnosed as a dysphonic spaz then the part of your brain that allows you speak properly has basically shut itself off. Permanently. There is no known cure or treatment.
Scott Adams, the guy who made Dilbert, was one such spaz... until after 18 months of suffering, he found a way to cure himself in two days.
That's pretty great.
If I ever spaz out in a dysphonic manner, I will know what to do.
12:29 PM
MP3 supersite AllOfMP3 was smacked down last week when Visa announced they'd no longer allow payments to be made to the legal-ish online music store using their credit cards. This effectively shut the site down, because once your AllOfMP3 balance runs out you won't be able to add funds to buy more music.
All is not lost, however! Your AllOfMP3 login credentials also work at their sister site, alltunes.com and they DO accept credit cards. You might want to consider bumping up your balance over there before Visa catches on!
1:14 PM
I played a little bit of the free open beta of Phantasy Star Universe this weekend. I was not impressed.
The music was great, but the graphics looked pretty blocky and dated. For a 'next-gen' title this was pretty bland. The entire user interface was convoluted and awkward... I think any console game with its own monthly subscription fee - separate from the regular Xbox Gold fee - is doomed to failure. Anyway I won't be buying it.
Later I dusted off the ol' PS2 and started playing the highly-rated everywhere-I-looked Okami.
After spending nearly an hour in the tutorial sandbox I said "HEY WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. I'm tired of learning how to play. I want to ACTUALLY play." Long non-skippable cut-scenes with inane dialog and annoying 'talking' sound effects didn't help either! I finally just stopped playing and decided to save Okami for a day when I have more patience. It certainly looked like a great game...maybe someday I'll know for sure!
I had almost given up hope on playing anything new that was actually fun when I fired up Final Fantasy XII.
Final Fantasy XII is a great game. An excellent game. And this is coming from someone who really didn't like most of the recent Final Fantasies. A new active battle system keeps things fresh, and high-quality character models and environments really blur the line between CGI cut-scenes and in-game play. Eye-rolling random battles are gone!
FFXII also has good voice-acting, which I think is a first for the series! Less reading = more playing!
All in all Final Fantasy XII is an amazing highly-polished late-generation game that really shows off the power of the PS2. It looks and sounds wonderful, the story's not completely retarded, and it's fun to play! I'd recommend you check it out, suckas!
10:13 AM
I'm no fan of flight simulators, but I guess they're pretty cool if you're into that sort of thing...
I haven't really been keeping tabs on the flight simulator world, but the last time I played one it looked like this:
Nowadays they look like this:
Yes, pretty incredible. That first one was from Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer released 19 years ago. The second one is from Microsoft's new Flight Simulator X.
And if that screenshot isn't enough to convince you, check out this quick video comparing an approach to Princess Juliana Airport in a splitscreen view with both real-life and in-game displays. Until the video told me which was which, I really couldn't tell.
2:30 PM
The most irritating part of owning indoor cats, even well-behaved ones, is having to clean out their litter box.
You have to scoop up pee and poop every day or so, dump it into a plastic trash bag, then carry that bag downstairs and throw it in the trash can on the side of the house. It's smelly, wasteful, annoying, and cat sand gets everywhere.
I switched to flushable litter about a year ago, and that helped a lot. Now I can just drag the litterbox into a bathroom and scoop the litter straight into the toilet.
This is a good solution, but it still means I have to carry a full litter box to the toilet, sift through sand to find pee and poo chunks, carry the litter box back to its resting place, and deal with any stray litter in the area around the cat box. Every. Single. Day.
My physical laziness is the stuff of legend, and my cats are not the boss of me!
Last weekend my brother got us the totally sweet CitiKitty CAT TOILET TRAINING SYSTEM.
So far I've had the training device up on my toilet for 48 hours and only Conan has been brave enough to hop on it and go #1. I have high hopes for this product and if it works as advertised I will be free of the curse of cat litter for all time. ALL TIME!
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