some Monday toxic gumbo

Lots of random stuff today, I guess. Nothing that's all that interesting, though, I suppose.

I totally love Sirius satellite radio. This weekend I was driving around listening to the music stations and found three stations that are bananas, B-AN-AN-AS. One's a modern rock station, one's a classic rock from the 80s and 90s station, and the other is called Hair Nation and is basically the soundtrack of 6th through 8th grade for me. The only problem is that they so frequently all play good music at the same time. So, unlike regular radio where I have to search hard to find something I don't mind settling on, I had to choose for instance at one point between a new Beck tune, "One Night Love Affair" by Bryan Adams, and "Wanted Man" by Ratt. That is a tough choice.

I got an email today out of the blue from an old friend from High School, Otto Lai. Haven't talked to him in years and years and he found me through myspace. Otto's a great guy and an extremely gifted cartoonist. The inside cover of my senior year book has a message from him that says "When your brother or sister have kids, they can call you 'Uncle Jesse.' Yee-haw!" and is followed by a cartoon of two dogs doing the nasty. You know how there are people from high school that you forget ever existed and then other people that you think about regularly and wonder what they're up to? Otto falls into the latter category, so I'm glad I heard from him. As best as I can gather, he's now a digital artist living in NYC, so good for him.

I finished reading The Divinci Code last night. I'm torn about it. I loved the plot and I loved the proposed historical revelations contained within it. I just didn't like the characters. So, I dunno. I don't want to ruin the book for anyone who hasn't read it and wants to; but I will say that if what it says is true, I wouldn't be surprised in the least.

Um ... what else? My cat had a nightmare on Friday night. Skeleton Key is a disappointing movie. Band of Brothers, on the other hand, rocks like a hurricane. Oh, and Resident Evil 4 is lame. If anyone is looking for a good zombie game, don't get Resident Evil 4. Some of my complaints about it might be ultra-picky game designer gripes, but I really just am not enjoying it.

Games are progressing constantly in terms of what they allow the player to do. More and more frequently, gamers are finding that their imaginations will lead to puzzle and problem solving solutions that are creative and non-linear approaches to the problem, and that the game designers have allowed for it. It makes for a great game experience. God of War is full of those kinds of moments. Moments whereby you think "I wonder if I can do [blah]?" and sure enough you can, which makes you feel like a badass.

But, Resident Evil 4 just keeps frustrating me. Let me paint the scene: I'm a government agent [voiced by a terrible voice actor] who has been sent to Genericsberg, Europe to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the US President. For whatever reason, I stumble across a village of angry villagers who want to kill me for no reason. Anyway, when you enter the Village of A-holes, the entire town turns out to kill you. So, I'm standing there looking for a way out the situation and it occurs to me "Oh, snap! There's a two-story building there! I know! I'll dash inside, run up the stairs, and then use the stairs to bottle neck the A-holes and kill them one by one as they try to come up the stairs!"

It was a perfect plan. So, I head into town and sure enough, the townsfolk start to advance in a murderous rampage. I make a mad dash into the two-story building, snake my way through the living room, around a corner, through the dining room towards the stairs only to discover: there are no stairs upstairs. The stupid two-story building doesn't have any way up to the second floor. So, instead, I find myself trapped in the bottom floor of this house with Zombie-Villagers smashing their way through the windows and doors like it's the freakin' "Thriller" video.

Anyway, things like that really annoy me in games. I guess I've rambled long enough. Seacrest, out.