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Tuesday, August 31st

Songs of the Doomed (3)


Listening to: nothing
Current mood: annoyed

So, I just wrote up this whole long post and it was nice and shiny and had all sorts of wittiness in it, and my hand slipped on the touchpad and closed the window. Meaning that my post has been dashed back into the ether out of which it was formed and I'm left trying to recreate it best I can.

Well, first thing is that it's only about 4 days until I am no longer what we call single. One would think that I might be out howling at the moon or some such thing, or that I would at least have something to talk about. But really it's just been pretty mellow around here. We've been working at moving into our apartment over the last week (although I have almost nothing moved or indeed packed yet) and most of the wedding plans have coalesced. At least I think they have, there's actually a wedding-related meeting going on right now that I'm not actually at, which is part of the fun of being the groom in this situation, no? So yeah, things have been proceeding in a chronological way, which I'm told has something to do with the nature of space-time. But I didn't come here to talk about that. I came here to talk about the draft. I mean Doom 3.

Now, I apologize for boring you by talking about this, but Doom 3 is the possibly the most heavily hyped game computer game of all time, and, being a gamer, I can't really go and not even mention it can I? I will not question why it's so heavily hyped. The original two Doom games were, in my opinion, really only remarkable as a showcase for new technology and for being one of the first and most important first person shooters out there (although I trace my FPS roots back to Catacomb Abyss 3D). The content, however, was unremarkable enough to make most Roger Corman flicks look like Citizen Kane. I mean, so you're this guy. On Mars. And you kill like, zombies and demons and stuff with chainsaws and guns. And there's heavy metal playing. Genius. Anyway, but despite the teeming hordes of reviews out there, I haven't found one that tells you quite easily and simply just what this new technological marvel known as Doom 3 is. Admittedly I only just got it and have probably only put a little more than an hour into game, but it seems so simple that I just can't figure out why none of the reviewers out there have said it. They've described it again and again, but nothing I've read has put it in these terms: Doom 3 is a haunted house. You walk through nearly pitch black corridors with a flashlight and appropriately spooky sounds play, and things jump out at you from time to time. I hear that in one of the later levels you have to put your hand in a bowl of eyeballs that's actually just peeled grapes. No, I kid. But really that's what Doom 3 reminds me of. And really, it's pretty fun. I just wish I had some candy corn and cupcakes to make the whole experience that much better. Like, you know those cupcakes and they're chocolate and they have the white frosting that has all those colored dots in it? Those are good. Man I'm hungry. What was I talking about?

Matt on 08.31.04 @ 06:28 PM PST [link
 

Sunday, August 22nd

Melancholiac


Listening to: some guy playing the guitar
Current mood: unthrilled

Ah, the rain she is a fallin' in old Ashland town. Pretty seriously, actually; it's decidedly wet outside. Which is nice for a couple reasons. I mean, I think we've all been getting a little tired of the whole hundred-plus-degree paradigm, but also I've been in a rather melancholy mood since last night, and it's always nice when the weather matches my mood. In a way, feeling sad in the rain can almost feel better than being happy in the sun, at least for me. As to why I'm feeling melancholy, other than it being my general disposition, that's far too long a story to go into. But do not worry about my melancholiac ways. As soon as I post this I'll see my bat icon and that will doubtless cheer me. He is a fat little batty.

I hate to say it again, but there really seems to be little going on around here lately. The wedding preparations are still underway, and I've been doing some work and reading mid-90s Starman comics and occasionally playing a bit of Halo. And I've actually done more writing in the last week than I think I've done in the last 6 months, which is always good. The most interesting bit of my week was driving down to Stockton with my dad in order to drive his truck back up after he bought a new car, and getting to meet my friend Mary in Yuba City and hang out for a few hours in the bargin. That was fun. There's really little else going on. Lynnea and I spent a little time cleaning our new apartment today and discovered that when it rains there's appearently a creek that floods and runs through our parking lot and practically sweeps my small car away. Which is amusing. I suppose I'll stop there, I don't want to make anyone's heart stop via excitement. I think maybe I'll attempt to put a bit more thought into my next post. As though that's ever happened.

Matt on 08.22.04 @ 02:50 PM PST [link
 

Saturday, August 21st

Ph34r the 1c0n


Listening to: none
Current mood: battybattybatty

Do you fear my favicon? The bat, he haunts your sleep no?
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, and don't see a cute little batty next to the page URL then I feel sad for you, I truly do. Never will you know the joys of small bats next to the page URL of this site. Sad sad sad.

It's 2:30am. Why am I still awake?

Matt on 08.21.04 @ 02:15 AM PST [link
 

Friday, August 13th

When they do it double post...


Listening to: nothing
Current mood: grrr

...that's them blogging. Ok enough Liz Phair references. I hate it when I have nothing to say then I accidentally double-click the button thing and it posts twice and I have to come up with more to say to make it look like I'm not actually inept. Maybe I'll just like, say something intelligent. Ehm... hmm... something intelligent... something... witty. Meaning that I should most likely not use the words "like", "thingy", or "American." Heh, maybe that was witty enough. Whatever. Alright, like, I'm tired of this thingy.
Matt on 08.13.04 @ 11:02 PM PST [link
 



Viva la Blog


Listening to: nothing
Current mood: bored

Wow, I guess I haven't been feeling that much blog guilt. Man, has it seriously been over a week? I could have sworn that it was just a couple days ago that I posted last. I gotta up my caffine intake, this place is turning into a vertible SelfUnfocused (heh, no, I kid). So I'm typing this up on my shiny new, well, old computer, but just upgraded last night and today to an Athlon 64 3200+. Which is spiffy and should allow me to keep enjoying fine computer games for some time to come. Those chips are small by the way. Really small. Impressively small.

So, in case you can't tell I can't really think of anything to say despite my lack of recent posts lately. It's been same old same old around these parts. We found a nice apartment, a two story townhouse thing, with two bedrooms that I think will be pretty nice. It's not too far from downtown Ashland either so that one could easily stroll down to whereever. Or skateboard down as the case may be. I've actually made some marginal amount of improvement in my skateboard riding abilities, enough that I was delighted when I twisted my leg yesterday trying to do an ollie. cause hey, at least I must have felt like there was a small chance of landing it or I wouldn't have tried right? And other than that it's work and wedding planning and watching Christopher Guest movies. I guess it's just that whole feeling that I get in August sometimes. Where you're sort sad that the summer is coming to an end but at the same time you wish it would just die already so you can cool off and get on with your life. It's very liminal. Well, it's coming on 11 and there's probably movies to watch and beers to drink and the like. I'm gonna get a tattoo that just says "Remember the Blog" which will terribly confuse others 20 years from now and terribly confuse me 50 years from now.

Matt on 08.13.04 @ 10:59 PM PST [link
 

Wednesday, August 4th

Blog Guilt


Listening to: The Magnetic Fields - i
Current mood: caffinated

So there seems to have been a bit of talk about my not blogging enough. Which is likely true, although my current life could probably be described more accurately as a half-life lately. It's been a fuzzy few weeks now. The kind where I just kinda float around not really thinking about anything related to reality. Still, I do feel bad about not posting very much lately. For the last few days I've been heavily distracted tripping between work and making wedding invitations. Seriously, just buy them. Yes, our wedding invitations are very cool, and did not cost us very much, but oi. Working on them will eat your soul in a honey mustard sauce. Honey mustard I say. (evil!) Perhaps if we'd started working on them in any serious fashion before oh, I don't know, a week before the last possible minute that we could send them... (Lynnea is gritting her teeth and plotting my death as she reads this... yes yes, that is entirely my fault, I admit it). Also I've spent a bit of time on the skateboard. Or perhaps more accurately, off the skateboard. I am, how do you say, not so good. Though I think just skating back and forth on my parents' back deck has improved me somewhat. Somewhat. I need to go over to the nearby elementary school (where I went for K-8 I might add), and skate there, but then I'm afraid that there might be kids there, and that they would make fun of me. Ah, social anxiety disorder, I love you.

So tonight's order of business is food and apartment glancing. Not looking, looking would involve calling people and seeing insides of places. We're just going to drive around and check out what some of the places look like and then we'll call if we like them. That sort of thing. I tell you though, it's amazing, you get out of the city and rent prices drop through the floor. Everyone always complains about Ashland rent prices being ridiculously high, but we've been mostly looking at 2 bedroom places (so we can have an officey room) and they're mostly in the $550-700 range. Which could maybe get you a studio in the ghetto in San Diego. On a good day. So I have rather high hopes for the thing. Could even be fun, who knows. Ok, that's all the posting you get for right now, but seriously I'll try to up the posting level. Even if it just means confused muttering. Oh wait, that's a normal post here.

Matt on 08.04.04 @ 04:54 PM PST [link