Thursday, December 18, 2008

Holiday Cheer

According to Time Magazine, Austin is ranked number nine in their Top Ten Places to Find the Most Holiday Cheer. I was happy to see Mystic, Connecticut on the list as well as NYC. I actually stopped by 37th Street last night to see the beautiful yet very Austin ecclectic lights. I will not be able to get to Zilker for the Trail of Lights this year though. There is always next year.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

a gamey Christmas

My life is fairly crazy right now, finishing up at work before the holidays and shopping for said holidays. But in all that craziness, I managed to feed my soundtrack habit. The game, Gears of War 2, just came out this year and on the weekend after Thanksgiving, Gamespot had a 2 for 1 sale so I picked up the original Gears of War. Man, is this game ever fun. Lots of shooter action, gore, and what is more genius than killing bugs, the bane of my existence. With the release of Gears of War 2 came the release of its score by one of my favorites, Steve Jablonsky. He came onto my scene with his score to Steamboy, a better than expected anime movie and score. He is recently known for his score to Transformers and is signed on for the sequel. I find it lovely when some of these composers delve into other mediums. Giacchino comes to mind scoring television, animated features, and games. Jablonsky's score to GOW2 is excellent but I also picked up the score to the original by Kevin Reipl and it also has some wonderful tracks, "Jacinto Prison" being one of them. I picked up a few other game scores, Too Human by Steve Henifin which is haunting and Mass Effect by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick. I hear Myst 3 in Wall's Mass Effect so it was worth it in my mind. It is going to be a good holiday.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Sunday, December 07, 2008

is anyone listening?


Um, Santa Claus? Gamespot giftcards welcome.

the pixar phenomenon

Every time a new Pixar film is released, I say to myself that it will not be as impressive and charming than that of the previous film. I said it at Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles and with each, I was pleasantily mistaken. Note that I did not mention Cars because I did not like it very much. Well, I did not even go see Wall-E in the theatre. It takes a force of nature to make me go to the theatre these days. So I was happy when it showed up in my mailbox the week it was released on DVD. Again, I am so glad I was mistaken. What an utterly enchanting film. I love how the first 20 minutes not a word was spoken (except in song of course). I fell in love with him and this simple yet effective film. Thank goodness I keep being wrong.

where is it?

Did you ever lose something and ask yourself, why can't I find it?  I was being a couch potato on my day off, crocheting a blanket for my friend who is having a baby.  It is due soon and I am seriously behind.  I finished a section and went to get a drink.  When I sat back down, I could not find the crochet hook.  I pulled up the couch pillows, looked under it, even went back to the kitchen to see if I left it there.  I could not find it.  I figured it would turn up, my apartment is not that big and there are not a lot of places it could have been.  After two days, each of which I pulled up the couch pillows again, I still could not find it.  Then I got really nasty.  I have been meaning to clean the slip covers on my couch so I pulled all of them up. The hook finally turned up but I lost two days and now have couch in disarray.  What a waste.