It's been a while since I've really posted anything on the Internet aside from intermittent tweets and forum posts, so I figured I'd catch those of you that I used to talk to on what's going on in my life as of the last year or so.
Well biggest and most important news first: my girlfriend and I had our fourth child! We had a girl her name is Aria Jewell. If there's anything I've ever been good at, I would say its being a father (as cliche as that sounds its the truth). Both Lindsay and I are really enjoying having a baby and so are the other kids.
Secondly, I've been working at a small machining shop that has been family owned and operated since the 1940s. I really enjoy it there and I'm making a decent living, and that definitely doesn't hurt things. I've been working there for a little over a year and don't see myself leaving anytime soon. I'm actually considering going back to finish college so that maybe I can provide a different service for this company. Who knows what the future holds in th regard.
Since the work and the baby have most of my time jerpordized I haven't been able to play as much games as I used to. I did spend an excessive amount of time playing Skyrim, however I still have Uncharted 3, Rage, Dead Space 2 and possibly a few others in my pile of shame. I will certainly go back and finish them after I finish playing the current apple of my gaming eye: Mass Effect 3.
I've been a big fan of the Mass Effect franchise since pretty much day one and so far, the latest entry hasn't disappointed me too much. I do have some. Minor complaints about the scanning planets thing and some other minor gripes but overall it's been just as enjoyable as the last game. I really like that the combat has a bit more of an action game feel to it than the previous two and while the changes do not elivate it to the likes of , say, a Gears of War, it does make the battles a bit more satisfying. I'm really interested in trying the multiplayer portion of the game but I havent had a chance to. If anyone would like to add me and maybe play a few games, please feel free. I don't have many gamer friends so its always a treat to play with cool people.
I guess that's about all I have to say right now so untill next time; peace.
It's been a long time since I've written a blog. It's never been a thing that I've been really good at (what constitutes as a "good blogger" anyway?) but sometimes I get the urge to put what I'm living through or enjoying for someone else to read. Usually no one does, but that's okay. It's cathartic and I kinda need it right now.
I have a great new job. By great I mean it pays real well and I work a lot of hours. Sometimes working 7 days a week really sucks. I feel like I'm on an endless cycle of lather rinse repeat and the days sort of just bleed together. Oh well, it's a good problem to have I guess. I could be dying or suffering in some impoverished country. I have been listening to music a lot lately to escape. I was thinking about doing a top 10 albums blog complete with youtube vids of songs, but I scratched the idea because I can never peg down a solid 10 that I'd say are my absolute favorite. I'll just post a list of my favorites off the top of my head and see how that turns out, haha!
Mike's totally off-the-top-of-his-head albums of 2010 list in no particular order! Intonaut - Valley of Smoke <------- Album of the Year! The Ocean - Heliocentric The Ocean - Anthropocentric Misery Index - Heirs to Theivery Solution 45 - For Aeons Past Miseration - The Mirroring Shadows Kalmah - 12 Gage Decrepit Birth - Polarity Deftones - Diamond Eyes Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Mar de Grises Streams Inwards Soreption - Deterioration of Minds
So yeah. If you're into metal or rock or whatever, give that shit a listen, yo!
I guess I could talk about games since I am on a gaming website, huh? The last game I finished was Dead Space. I really enjoyed that game for what it was supposed to be. I actually jumped a few times while playing it. The game was kind of a one-trick pony and towards the end the whole "holy crap there's an ugly monster screaming at you while you're just trying to finish the fucking game" shtick got kinda old. I enjoyed the game overall, I just think they could have done away with 2 or 3 hours of it and still have had a complete experience.
I just got Far Cry 2 from gamefly. I popped it in yesterday morning and played for a few hours. I'm not really enjoying it so far. The graphics are really good but the gunplay and exploration aspects seem sort of lacking. I'll give it a few more hours but if it doesn't get any more interesting I plan on sending it back.
Well I guess that's all I really have to say right now. If you happen to read this, great! Post a comment or something productive ya lazy bastard! Ugh, that was cheesy...
Last weekend a fiend and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio to see Intronaut, Kylesa and, of course, the mighty MASTODON!
I had met the guy I went up there with on the Mastodon message board and we hit it off because he lives in Indianapolis (I live in Columbus, a town about 40 miles south of Indy). He offered to drive up there so I agreed. I knew he was an alright guy from talking to him on the board, but he ended up being much cooler than I expected. That's definitely a good thing considering Cleveland is about 5 hours away.
We arrived at the venue about an hour an a half before the doors opened and met up with a couple of other guys from the board who lived in Ohio. We stood around and talked for a while when Bill Keliher (guitar player for Mastodon) walks up to and starts talking to us. I was trying so hard not to nerd the fuck out (Mastodon have been my favorite band for I don't know how long). I had told him we drove 5 hours from Indiana to come see them to which he responded "You guys are fucking nuts, thank you so much". He took off after about 15 minutes so we went inside to hang out at the bar and get a few drinks before the show.
At the bar, there was this 40-something year old dude who was there because he took his son to see Mastodon. He was smashed off his ass but was cool none-the-less. We talked sports (he was a Browns fan and I a Colts fan) and just random shit. It's surprising the cool people you meet at shows.
We heard Intronaut start so we made our way to the crowd. The venue itself was pretty damn tiny. I'd say the average movie theater screening room is larger by a pretty big margin. Intronaut sounded incredible. The heavy parts in their songs sounded like a freaking stampede of bull elephants racing towards you, you could feel the double-kick drum in your chest, it was fucking awesome.
After Intronaut, Kylesa came on. To be honest, they bored the living shit out of me. I don't know weather they just weren't that good live or I was just too damned excited to see Mastodon and was getting impatient. To be fair, the rest of the crowd seemed to like them.
After what seemed like forever of the crew setting up the stage for the 'Don, the lights went out and they came out on stage. They played their new album in it's entirety from front to back. It was one of the most incredible live expireinces I've had in my concert-going career. After they finished Crack the Skye, they took a break for a few minutes and came back out and played another set of their older stuff. Most of the songs they played were off Blood Mountain but they threw in some Leviathan and one song from Remission. To put it simply, they kicked major ass. I don't regret the 5 hour trip in the least.
After the show we waited around in the crowd and the drummer, Brann Dailor, jumped out and started talking to people and signing stuff and taking picutres. I got my picture taken and shook his hand and we took off outside. We met the guys from Ohio out by the tour bus to wait on the rest of the band and soon enough we had met and talked with Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders (lead guitar and bass, respectively). By this time there were just us 4 guys out there, after they went inside Brann came out and talked to us for like 40 minutes. We told him we were from the Mastodon board and our screen names and stuff. I got another picture with me, Brann and the guy I went with. When Brann left, we decided to start the trek back home.
The drive home was fucking brutal. We didn't talk as much because both of us were tired as hell. We stopped somewhere in Nowhere, Ohio and ate at a Denny's. It was about 3 in the morning but the place was fucking packed. I guess all that the people in that town have to do on a saturday night is to hang out at Denny's, haha.
I made it home about 9 on sunday morning. I had such an amazing time. Meeting the band I've adored for years, hanging out with some cool people, listening to great music. It was the trip of a lifetime, for sure.
Well today I start my new job. It's been a loooooong time coming, but I'm finally among the employed. It's second shift so I don't go in until 3 this afternoon. I really hate the time right before I go in for the first time, I'm pretty nervous and anxious.
I was going to grab some food at the grocery store for dinner and I was stopped at the light in front of my apartment complex. I tried to go when the light turned green but the van jerked really hard and wouldn't move. It starts and runs fine, it just won't go anywhere.
So I call the cops so they can send someone over to let people know to move around me (I was broken down in a turn-lane) and they called a toe-truck.
I have no idea what's wrong with it buy I know for sure it's going to cost me every fucking penny in my bank account.
Friday I went into the employment agency to take some sort of dexterity test to see if I'm fit for this assembly line position that opened up. I take the test and go home, they said I should hear back from them in an hour or two. They never call me so I call them this morning to find out I didn't get the job.
Fuck me man. It seems like every corner I turn there's someone there to kick me straight in the fucking nuts. I just don't understand it anymore. I'm completely at my wits-end and I need a fuckin miracle.
Not to mention the fact that I had to walk my fat fucking ass home carrying my girlfriends purse for a mile or so.
So I'm 24 now, that's pretty crazy. It feels like the older you get the faster years go by.
GAMES! Yes, I've been playing some games.
I finally finished Final Fantasy XII. Yes, after over two years of owning that game, I've completed it. I'm not really sure why a lot of fans of the series didn't like it. I thought it was a fantastic game. If you took the time to learn the ins and outs of the battle system, you could literally program the AI to deal with anything the game throws at you. The license board was really the only thing I had a problem with. I guess it's cool that you can customize your characters any way you see fit; however, I'm more of a fan of the archetypes that you see in past Final Fantasies or other RPG's (like mage, fighter, summoner, etc). I really enjoyed the storyline as well. It had more political and personal strife than the typical "evil monster comes to take over the world and you're the chosen one to stop it" bullshit. My favorite character would be Balthier as he was the most interesting.
A friend of mine gave me a sub-account for Gametap. As a sevice, it's not bad. There are a lot of interesting games available for a number of different platforms. I've played FarCry, Puzzle Quest, Sam and Max Episode 1 and various old-school arcade games. I really didn't think much of FarCry but Sam and Max and Puzzle Quest are both pretty awesome. Puzzle Quest is like a cross between Bejewled and an RPG. I haven't really played that much of it, just the first few battles or so, but it is rather enjoyable. I'll write more about it when I've spent a bit more time with it. Sam and Max is really funny. I haven't really played many adventure games but I've had fun with this one. It's typical "point and click" and that's fine but it's really the clever writing that carries the game.
Watchmen comes out friday. I'm pretty excited to see it. I've only read about half of the novel, I never finished it because I was borowing it from someone. I'm a lazy reader and it usually takes me twice as long as it takes someone to read something. I think I might go the extra mile and drive up to Indianapolis to see it at an Imax. That would be pretty sweet.
Today Lindsay is having surgery. Shes getting her wisdon teeth taken out, I guess they've grown in so much, the root is embeded in her jaw. They're going to have to cut her bone a little to get them out. I certainly don't envy her. She's going to be in some pain for the next few days.
Nothing else is really going on. I just figured I'd type up a blog here since I've nothing better to do right now.
Yes indeedy. It was 24 years ago today that this wretched hell-spawn escaped form his mother's womb. Actually, I think I was c-section so technically they pulled me out against my will haha.
But I digress.
Happy birthday to me!
The kids are at grandma's house so I got pretty sloshed last night. Good times.
I have a lot to talk about with games, so stay tuned. Real blog in the works, yo!
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