Isn't She Lovely?

We went to Concord (read: Middle of nowhere) last night to see Stevie Wonder. Sold out show with a fairly mixed crowd, which is always cool. Dude is old! Stevie was pulled onto stage 45 minutes late, when he proceeded to tell a very, very long story about how he was going to quit when his mom died. But, he decided to take her advice and "get on stage and do his thing". Dude talked forever and I was tempted to shout out "Free bird!" Would have amused me -- maybe not so much the other people on the hill.

He played for over 2 hours and covered almost all his hits. It was a little disappointing for him to spend 10 minutes jamming on a song nobody knew, but then 2 minutes to quickly run through hits like "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" (whatever it's called). Interpol will bring the rock in October and Stevie will be long forgotten.

I finally caved in and bought Civilization IV, along with the Beyond the Sword expansion via Steam Saturday night. I then proceeded to enjoy my entire Sunday on a multiplayer game with a friend. Sweet Jesus Sid Meier should be put in jail for making a Civ game multiplayer. It's perfection. If Civ was addictive and captivating before, it's even more so now. Get a few friends on Skype and just go to town. I'm tempted to play it on my second monitor at work, but all work progress would completely cease...and now is not the time to be slacking off.

We went to Foreign Cinema Friday night for my birthday. Not our best trip there (service was weak!), but still one of my favorite restaurants/dining experiences in the city. Just a fantastic place all around.

That reminds me -- Beth and I decided to start a blog to discuss our favorite restaurants and city experiences. It needs content and some visual love -- hopefully there will be time for that this week. We'll try to keep the content conversational and fast, which is why I think it deserves existence. So many blogs just ramble...like this one. Time for work and coffee.

(posted by grant at 8/27/2007)   (0) comments

We Shouldn't Be Blocking McLovin's Cock

I don't think there's anything to say about Superbad. It's incredibly awesome. So many good quotes, cops with child-molester 'staches, good music and a fat kid that draws penises. The movie totally kicked American Pie in the junk.

With my 360 still out (but in Microsoft's sticky hands apparently), I'm digging deeper and deeper into the creamy filling that is PC gaming. There's a severe lack of new titles, but my old ones still kick so much ass. I turned Day of Defeat: Source back on Saturday night, and once again was I introduced to the mathematically proven perfection that is (in my opinion) Valve's current multiplayer masterpiece. I say current, because I want Team Fortress 2 to make me cry with joy. But until that time, I will continue kicking ass at DoD. I bought that game around 2 years ago and it still hasn't gotten old.

I spent Sunday on the river near Sacromento wakeboarding. I say wakeboarding, but it's more accurate to say I was dragged for a few seconds every couple of minutes behind a motor boat. I never really boarded per se. I have this nice red spot on my back where my arms couldn't smear sun screen. My skin pulses like an egg, ready to pop. It's delicious.

Lastly, the Executive Producer for Battlefield was at the studio Friday for something. He spoke with my boss, but had to jet before he could be introduced to me. Why must the lord be so cruel? I just want to blow up tanks and camping turds. Thy will be done.

(posted by grant at 8/20/2007)   (0) comments

Busy

I've been incredibly busy at work. We're having some management shifts and things are ramping up, so I've been putting in a lot of extra hours. I did get a new car this past Saturday and it's awesome. 2007 Honda Civic EX Coupe. Better sound system, better engine, more efficient -- just overall a far superior car to my 2000 Civic (naturally). It actually makes driving a bit more fun. I'll post pictures at some point.

Also, I started playing Supreme Commander with some guys at work. Incredibly cool game. I'll try to discuss more later.

(posted by grant at 8/09/2007)   (0) comments

I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

I grabbed Boogie from the company store yesterday and played it for a few hours with the girlfriend. Overall I think the game is really slick. It's one of the first games that excites me visually and the controls look like they're more than a gimmick. The game has karaoke, dancing and a really nifty video editor. I think it could be a huge success.

A few things bug me, primarily there's not enough Britney Spears (Slave 4 U and Oops, I Did it Again) and absolutely no Nsync. Whaaa? No Justin Timberlake in my living room? Karaoke is also surprisingly difficult and the difficulty settings don't seem to impact the difficulty of actually singing the song, just the precision required for your pitch. So if I play on easy I still sing like crap, I just get more points. Some songs also seem to be tuned very strangely. There were times where neither of us could hit a chorus repeated throughout the song -- Milkshake was incredibly hard.

The interface can also be a tad unresponsive. Selecting a different clothing option for my character took about a second or so to upload and at first I thought something was wrong with the controller. If MySims loads things instantly in quickly, Boogie should do the same.

It's good stuff though -- a lot of fun, goofy gaming to be had.

(posted by grant at 8/09/2007)   (0) comments

All My Broken, Expensive Toys

My 7 year old Civic was side swiped a few Friday nights ago when I was inside my house. Knocked off my mirror, paint scratch, dents, and some internal damage to my window. That damage, plus the $1000 cost of fixing my AC has made my cars problems worth more than the car itself. So this weekend I'll be buying my first car. New Civic, naturally.

And my poor console.

My 360 is quite dead. I haven't called Microsoft (again) because their customer service is painful and I just have a hard time bringing myself to sitting on hold for an hour. I should do it, though, because the next month+ onslaught of games is quite tasty. Let's see, there's:

Bioshock. If Irrational pulls off half of what Ken Levine has been talking about I'll be so damn happy.

Stranglehold. I probably won't buy but might give it a look if the reviews are solid. I never saw the original film and the gameplay trailer I saw the other day really wasn't that awesome.

Medal of Honor: Airborne. Hopefully this will be a revival for the series. Call of Duty slapped the hell out of MoH. I really hope the open-ended nature of Airborne brings something new to the table.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I honestly think this will be a disappointment, but we'll see. I never liked the feeling of Quake III and I don't like the idea of Battlefield classes, vehicles and weaponry on a game mode like assault. Just seems so limiting and this multiplayer only game has taken a really long time to make. We'll see.

Skate. I might finally play a skateboarding game again. This looks really cool and the $20 corporate price only sweetens the deal.

So I should get on fixing that. Thankfully my PC RTS games are still fun. Relic is full of goddamn geniuses.

(posted by grant at 8/01/2007)   (0) comments