Duality

In Target’s December catalog, they goofed on the price of a DS: $100 instead of $130. They are, however, honoring the price, so if you are wondering whether or not to get a DS, I think this makes the answer a resounding “YES!”

Note: if you do take advantage of this deal, be prepared. Here’s a post from the CAG forums.

Well, I just got back from Target and it worked for me, althought I’m sure it won’t for all. I brought a screenshot of the price, and the phone number from the joystiq article (800-440-0680).

What I did:
I kept explaining that I DID understand they don’t pricematch their website, but that this was an advertisement for an IN-STORE price and that yes, it IS a typo, but that an email response from Target said that they would honor this price anyhow so long as a copy was brought into store, and that my local Target could call the 800 number if they needed to confirm.

=)

These movies of ZBrush made my jaw drop.

Now, I’m no expert on 3D-modeling software. I stopped following the field after the mega-merger of Specular, Fractal Design, and MetaTools into MetaCreations and the subsequent firesale when MetaCreations turned into the irrelevant MetaStream (now Viewpoint). But you don’t need to be an expert to see that ZBrush has an incredibly-slick and -intuitive interface.

Just from watching the movies, I already feel like I understand how to use the program. It’s almost like sculpting clay with your bare hands—almost because when using ZBrush, you don’t have to worry about making both sides look the same!

If I had more free time, ZBrush would definitely be a program I’d check out. Doesn’t look like that’ll happen any time soon though. Time to cook! Posted!

… in the “please hate us” category.

Perhaps you already know what I’m going to talk about. Yes, it’s about Sony and their rootkit-installing music CDs. If you haven’t heard—and if you have, correct me if I state this incorrectly—Sony BMG’s DRM-protected CDs install drivers on your Windows computer, hides them in a way that could also hide other malware, and modifies your system so that the drivers sit between Windows and your CD-ROM drivers. So, not only is it hard to track down the offending files, but if you carelessly delete them, your CD-ROM drive will no longer work.

I feel so disgusted.

Yesterday after work, I started feeling sick to my stomach after a bowl of cereal. It was dinner time, but I couldn’t eat dinner. So I did the next best thing: sleep. I figured that I’d cook and eat whenever I woke up.

6.5 hours later, it was 2 AM. I felt better, but still not hungry. I lounged around for awhile on AIM before feeling sleepy again. I went back to sleep at 3 thinking I’d be awake by 6, so I’d have plenty of time to cook, eat, and get to work at 9.

My alarm woke me up. At 7. And I decided to go back to sleep after turning my alarm off. Didn’t wake up until 8.

(something something something… 11.5 hours of sleep total. Throwing this post up because I gotta sleep)

This is just a reminder, but starting this Friday, I will be appearing on stage again for the first time in five years. The THIRDeYE Theatre Festival is a yearly production of three student written pieces. We will be playing this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (with a matinee on Sunday), and next Friday and Saturday the 9th and 10th.

“UC Davis’ venue for new work written, directed, acted, produced and designed by students, presents three works chosen from scripts submitted last spring: Dissident by Drama major Tyler Katz, directed by Michael Ortiz, in which an artist’s search for self reveals more than he bargained for; Language Barrier by Drama major Syche Hamilton, directed by Matt Welch, in which a father struggles to accept his daughters’ sexuality; and Vespucci by English major Kaelan Smith, directed by Bryan Bachar, a political drama that questions our power to create change. Jade McCutcheon is the festival’s Artistic Director.”

Tickets are only 9 dollars for students, and while it may be a bit of a drive for some of you, it would mean a lot to me if you could come. I am playing Tom Vespucci in the play Vespucci. It’s been a lot of work over the past three months, but well worth it. Anyway, here you can find out all the information you might need, or feel free to leave a comment, or IM me or E-mail me or whatever. If you’ve got my number, you could even call me. It should be an enjoyable evening, and I hope you can all make it.

Bloody hell…

well…we can still dream…

In a move that may be a surprise to some (I was actually expecting something like this), to quell some of the X-Box 360’s fire, Sony decided to release the price point of the upcoming Playstation 3 today. That’s right. The time has finally come. Will loyal games have to shell out 1000 bucks for a PS3? Hell no!

“Sir Howard [Sony’s CEO] said the PS3 will sell for $300 to $400 and will come with a bundle of games, movies, and TV shows, many of which Sony also makes. ”

300-400 bucks?? That’s it? Good lord Sony! You have just completely erased any consideration I had about buying an X-Box 360 (not that there was much to begin with). Seriously. Shell out 400 bucks now for a minor technological advancement, or wait a few months and shell out the same 400 bucks for an unbelievable leap in technology. And considering the PS3 will have a built in Blu-ray DVD drive and the fact that stand along Blu-ray DVD players cost one thousand dollars, the PS3 is God’s gift to man.

Sony. You always know how to make me feel good. (You can read more of the CNN article if you’d like.)

A year ago today, the Nintendo DS was released in North America. It’s been a long year for the DS but things have finally started to pick up. With the amazing creativity in games like Trauma Center: Under The Knife and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, not to mention the sheer awesomeness of Mario Kart DS, that little system is getting a lot more play time. And the future is only looking brighter. With Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi, and even Electroplankton (that’s for you, Quad) the future has never looked better. So join me in wishing the Nintendo DS a Happy Birthday!

I’ve got three bits of movie stories for ya today. Firstly, one thing that I’ve been doing in my free time (as limited as it is), is playing The Movies. If you don’t know what that is, essentially it’s a sim game that lets you run a movie studio, but you also get to actually make the movies you produce. You chose the actors, sets, costumes, lighting, sound, special effects, everything. Anyway, after you’re done making them, you can export them or upload them to The Movies online community site. It’s there that other people can watch and rate your movies. With the help of a friend of mine, I uploaded my first movie. It’s not anything to write home about, but I think it’s cool. Anyway, you can view Battlefish Tarantula and please let me know what you think.

Secondly, I got to see the new Harry Potter film today and I have to say that I’m a bit torn. On one hand, it was overall a very good movie. However, when you look at the movie in parts, it cut out a lot of things. And I’m not just talking about things they cut from the book (which was a lot), but there were parts which felt like there was a scene preceding it and they had just removed it to make the film shorter or something. There were several places in particular (the Quidditch World Cup and the Ball) in which this feeling was very pronounced and really took away from the film. However, like I said before, it was overall a very good film and set up the next one very nicely. The ending was so perfectly sad and depressing that I was actually comparing it to The Empire Strikes Back.

Thirdly, I finally got around to watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Wow. I can’t even begin to describe how perfect this film was. Everything it did was exactly the way it should have been. You could tell that every little thing in this movie was done for the fans. It’s really impossible to describe how amazing it was. All I can say is that if you’re ever played Final Fantasy VII, you owe it to yourself to see this film. Even if you’ve never played it, you still should see it. For someone like me, who loves FFVII more than anything in the world, it was not only a great movie, but a truly emotional experience. And I’ll admit that by the end of it, I was actually a bit teary-eyed. It’s the culmination of everything good in the world and served to you with a smile. Enjoy.

As I write this, it’s about 1AM and I’ve got to be up in several hours. I should have gone to bed hours ago, but for some reason, I couldn’t sleep. And as much as I know that I should keep trying to sleep, I thought of this and realized that I couldn’t put it off any longer. So here goes…

The easiest way to explain my absence? Umm…I was dead. Yes, that’s it. I died. It was all very sad. Lovely funeral, though. But as I got to heaven, I spoke with the big guy and apparently there was a mix up. Big paper jam at the filing office. Turns out it wasn’t my time after all. So they decided to send me back. And because I was buried with my cell phone I was able to call the undertaker and they exhumed me.

…not buying it? Damn. Well, long story is I’ve been busy as all hell. Sort-of. The big announcement that I meant to have made over a month ago is essentially what’s been keeping me busy. I’m in a play. Now for some of you, that may not seem like a big deal, but it actually means a lot. Mainly, the fact that I haven’t performed on stage in over five years. So this is essentially my big comeback. The story I was going to tell is too long to repeat now, but the short version goes something like this.

As a theatre major, you are required to participate in many different areas of the theatre before you can graduate. Of them all, I had three left. 2 crew positions (ie, sound op, light op, spot op, etc) and one acting. Back in early September, several announcements were made regarding upcoming auditions for the departments Fall shows. I contemplated for a while on whether I should act this quarter or just crew, and decided that I would crew. Fast forward to the first day of school, and there’s an announcement made in one of my classes stating “We need more male actors. There will be open auditions later today. You don’t need a monologue.” And after some time, I decided “What the heck. I might as well give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?” So after school, I went to the theatre and cold-read (ie, read a script for the first time, sans memorization) a scene. I didn’t think much of it, but lo-and-behold the next day I got an email saying I was called back for three of the four shows!

Quite excited, but rather nervous, I returned the next day for callbacks. And for one show, again the day after for a second call back. Then, several heart wrenching days later (it’s amazing how nervous I was. Especially since this wasn’t even something I had planned on doing) I got the email that changed my life…well, no, maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration. I got the email that changed my quarter! (Much better)

So, these days my life is filled with either one of two things. School or Rehearsal. (oh, and let’s not forget my new job) For example, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m at school from 9AM-6PM and then have rehearsal from 6PM-10PM. And as fun as 13-hour days can be, there’s only so many you can take before you decide to cut out all but the essentials from your life. Not to say that writing here isn’t important to me, but there’s only so much I can do. And if I ever do have some free time, I tend to space out and participate in various activities that don’t require me to think, ie TV or games.

However, over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about a few things Quad once told me. The biggest point of them being that I don’t need to write novels here. I can just write quick entires that let people know what’s going on with my life. And while Quad hasn’t been bugging me lately to write more (bless him) I feel like I should. Obviously, giant month long pauses between posts just wont do. I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped coming. Somehow I’ve always felt that quick entries were like cheating. And while that’s not always a bad thing, I need to get over it and realize that not everything has to be in thesis-form.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much of this makes sense (it’s close to 1:45 now) but I think what I’m trying to say is that I want to start posting quick items, but I didn’t feel like it was right to do so until I’d explained my hiatus. So now with this out of the way, I can feel free to indulge the lazy writer within me.

Oh, and if anyone will be in town (or lives close enough by and doesn’t mind the drive) I will be in Vespucci, which is part of the THIRDeYE Theatre Festival. We will be performing Friday-Sunday December 2-4 and Friday-Saturday December 9- 10 at 8:00 p.m. except for Sunday at 2 p.m. It’s really good show and I encourage anyone who like the theatre to come. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask.

It’s good to be back!!