55 minutes

It's 4:05 and only minutes to go until the weekend. I thought I would spend the rest of my time filling the blog in on weekend plans.

Tonight is a rave...inside WoW. Defiantly a new idea. Its on the Dark Iron server and being thrown by the Disciples of Divx, one of the guilds in the Penny-Arcade Army. There is going to be a live music cast and lots of give aways and games. My coworker and I will be going to check it out, then who knows what else.

On Saturday night is a actual rave right here in Des Moines. I haven't been to a good rave in years. Raves are kind of hit and miss with me. I enjoy the music, and for the most part, enjoy the people that attend. I hope a good Halloween party will do me well.

Sunday is crappy scary movie night with the girl friend and friends. Much popcorn and candy will be consumed.

I come back to work next week and prepare to give a workshop on PowerPoint 97, of all things.

I beat Shadow of the Colossus the other day, and my half way preview holds true. Aside from a few technical glitches this games presentation is excellent. It has defiantly earned a place on my shelf. Next up is Soul Caliber 3.

-LogicLB

Shodow of the Colossis

For the past few months I've been keeping up with this game called Shadow of the Colossus. There were several features about the game discussed in the previews that I really hoped were as good as they sounded. A game with nothing but boss battles and the story telling genius of the developer of ICO was enough to sell me. I tried my best not to get over hyped about it.

After several months of waiting the game was finally released. My roommate and I obtained a copy and hastily brought it home. We watched the calming opening sequence and tried to wrap our heads around the game’s idea. The abstract story is difficult to truly comprehend unless you accept how basic it is. A nameless hero traveling to a land were the dead can be brought back to life. The deaths of the colossi are required to bring back the soul of a girl. A girl the hero is willing to pay any price to save.

There is magic to this game that I can't really describe. Maybe it’s the soothing music of the violin playing while I ride my horse across the plain, or possibly the majesty of the colossi towering over me as I attempt to climb up its leg. There is just this odd euphoria about the game, as if I have been searching through my dreams to find it.

If you're into video games at all you really need to take a moment and find this one.

-LogicLB

Creative Coding

I work help desk for a corporate office. For the majority of my day, I sit by the phone answering the same 20 questions over and over again. On the upside, its a small corporate company, making it a small IT department. This means a lot more responsibility per employee. So I have my hand in everything here; Active Directory management, Exchange maintenance, nightly tape backups, web server and web based applications.

Recently my boss wanted me to help him with a problem. We wanted to get the census for every facility to each facilities administrator. "Make it extremely easy for them", he said. So taking my amateur skills in dynamic web pages, I did my best to call the stored procedure for the daily census to a web page. After searching hundreds of "How To ASP" pages and banging my head on the desk I finally came up with the page. And it was awesome!

It was simple, it was informative, and it was web-based making it really light and easy to distribute. I must say, that finishing this simple project has given me a great sense of accomplishment. I know what I did wasn't a huge feat of programming skill, but just that I was able to put the pieces together and create the dynamic response is a new talent for me. I never knew if I had it in me to be a programmer, I think I'll start seriously considering it.

-LogicLB

I've been angry...

...and for no good reason. I mean, there are things about my life that cause me stress but I have agreed to these and actively support them. I've build these systems, and for me to become upset with it because it irritates me isn't acceptable. This is the way things are, there are what I agreed to. I have to stop myself before I do something I'll regret, so I fight this odd mental war. Both sides have a grievance, and they both speak their opinions loudly. I listen silently to both sides, trying to weigh the concerns and consequences to each thought process. The humorous part though is when they debate like separate entity's, I come to the realization that it is only me speaking to myself. Its just me making these decisions no matter how many voices I use to speak.

Its at that point I have to stop and ponder how I'm able to accomplish such a feat.

I live in an apartment with two other people I consider my friends. I like these friends of mine and I enjoy their company. I like the feeling of being on my own with the support of two others similar to myself. Its hard to consider these two people to be the cause of my stress, but I feel that the longer I spend with them, the less I'm going to be able to accomplish.

Carrying the Casket

Tomorrow I'm suppost to carry my Great Grandmother's casket to her grave site. First time I'll be a casket bearer. I dont remember much of this person I'm bearing to the grave. I remember the house she owned, the sugar cookies she always had on hand, and the strange mechanical bird in the living room. I dont feel much sense of loss, I dont feel much of anything.

I'm told she is the last of the generation, outliving all of her siblings by several years. Grandma Lou was ninity nine years old, only weeks away from her hundredth birthday. On the greeting table for her visitation was a birthday card from Laura Bush, so I guess it was official.

After the visitation, Brian, one of my father's cousins invited everyone back to his house. My social anxzity is in full gear, I see all these people I'm suppost to know and I cant remember most any of them. I try my best to stay atentive, but after about twenty minutes I escape to playing a break out clone on my PocketPC. After making a delicious turkey sandwich I listened in on a conversation my father, uncle and 3 of their cousins were having. They were telling stories about living in the same small town and the mischif they would cause. It was odd to hear all the things my father used to do, and then compare that person to the man I knew when growing up. Soon afterward my brother and I take off for the hotel were staying at. He and I discusse how that would be us in thirty years, except we would be talking about the times we would sneak into the basement to play the Super Nintendo.

I'll be back in town tomorrow night. I'm suppost to hang out with Sean, a friend I haven't spoken to for over a year. I have mixed feelings about the whole situation, but its something I need to do. I'll save the backstory for another time, I'll let you know how it goes.

-LogicLB