staying crispy in milk since 1979

Write Or Die!

2009-02-20T05:20:00.000-08:00

An experiment:

Shit! I don't know... Writing under pressure was something that I always enjoyed doing way back when I was still an naive adolescent dumb enough to believe I could make even a dent in the soul-crushing Hollywood shit machine. “Quick Writing” is what twelfth grade English teacher, Simone Waite used to call them. It's one of few morning excercises to which I always looked forward with glee. Some times I wonder where I would be if I hadn't dropped out of college to become a shut-in who later ran away from home and then flirted with and ultimately made a serious pass at suicide only to survive and find himself years later living a rather domesticated, and certainly very practical, life complete with a job and bills and a dog and... well I suppose there's still one thing missing. Is it still two-thousand nine?

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As I live and breathe! Today EA announced “American McGee’s Alice 2!” As someone with a massive, blood-filled erection for the books I adored the first “Alice’s” darkly-stylistic take on Wonderland… “Alice 2” will also becoming to consoles which gives me an excuse to postpone upgrading my PC yet again... There will be a gaint snail fight, apparently.

-Lex

Into the great beyond!

2009-02-19T05:37:00.000-08:00

Faults not withstanding, Mass Effect was awesome. Last week EA and BioWare announced ME2 for release sometime next year. This has led some, including yours truly, to wonder about which of the monumental endings the sequel will take into account when you boot up a new game. Some have theorized that you will fill out a survey similar to the one you filled out at the start of Mass Effect 1. Other still are wagering on BW acknowledging the “logical” ending. Frankly, I’ll put my money on the former possibility.

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For all interested parties: I’ve a twitter that I’ll be updating via my new Blackberry from wherever I happen to be. Keep tabs on it if daily quips and the like appeal to you.

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Waiting on payday to pick up Street Fighter IV.

-Lex

Must Love Thinking...

2008-12-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

Attention all potential girfriends, bedmates and spouses. When writing a personals ad, please take the following to heart. Take a good look at yourself and flex those brain cells. Avoid the phrases "down to earth" and "just me." Please don't use "outgoing" as it's trite and that kind of perpetually-bouncy personality is vomit inducing. Be original. That's all that you need to do really. Don't cut and paste someone else's cliched profile. This makes you come off as flat, totally uninteresting and is a real turn off... Also, would it kill you to use the caps lock key?

-Lex

Zen

2008-05-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

“Where is it? Where iss it?” …. “Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!”

-Gollum

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My beloved Zen Nano, which has been at my side for nearly three years, went missing early this week. It’s no where to be found. It’s perhaps lost for all time in that place to that place where missing toys vanish. The last two podcastless nights at work have been maddening without the voice of kindred folk to easy my ache induced by the wretches that spew broken English and bad grammar. So yesterday, whilst on break, I made a desperate, mad dash to the local best buy to pick up a replacement. The relatively inexpensive SanDisk Sansa Express trumps my old ZN in many ways. A rechargeable lithium ion battery, built FM tuner and, at one gig, boasts twice the storage space. It even came with some sweet preloaded tunes. At forty bucks, which is what I paid for my five-twelve meg Zen Nano back in O-Five, it was quite the bargain. All bonuses aside; the Sansa came sealed within the bain of my consumerist existence: a clamshell package. The solid carapace nearly caused me to loose a finger whilst trying to pry the Sansa free. Nonetheless, I’m quite happy with my purchase. RIP Zen Nano… wherever you are.

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My ISP’s website is down which means I’m unable to read my email. Oh bother! Perhaps it’ll be fixed come this afternoon. Otherwise I’ll be forced to call Comcast which is both a chore and a headache.

-Lex

Cold Coffee

2008-05-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

It would appear that I misplaced my MP3 player. The one piece of technology that made the long nights at work tolerable has gone missing. For the life of me, I can’t seem to remember the last time I saw it. Making matters worse, I got a wee bit of the diarrhea last night at work. Not sure what caused it, but my suspicions lead me to believe it was that so-called coffee from the machine. Funny thing is I’ve had that toilet water before and this is the first time it’s ever disagreed with my bowels. If that weren’t enough of a kick to the pants; apparently BCC (Broward Community College) will be raising its tuition next year. Odds are that sleazy move by the powers-that-be might trickle down to my county and affect my tuition costs at MDC. ::sighs:: Hopefully tonight will fair better.

-Lex

When there’s not much else to talk about…

2008-05-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

After scorching hundred degree mother's day weekend, we were greeted by a brisk sixty-seven breeze this morning… GTA IV’s been consuming my free time as of late. Its uber sweet, perhaps not the perfect ten many publications have been hyping, but certainly a car chase packed extravaganza the likes of which will be hard to top. Especially by a certain GTA clone sequel that’s due later this year… Update on that student loan I applied for: No go. ::sniff:: It would appear that I’ll be paying for most of my academic expenses out of pocket for a while longer. I’ve an interview at the University of Miami sometime next week, a meeting with the boss arranged by a certain relative who works at said institution. UM pays for all its employees' schooling. The downside to that is that one needs to have worked at the university for at least a year before the school ponies up for your secondary scholastic edification. More on this story as it develops.

-Lex

Something of a Proper Introduction

2008-04-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

For the better part of five years, I’ve been trying, with varying degrees of success which ultimately led to failure, to regularly maintain a blog. As has been the case with many of my previous blogs, I usually find myself with a shortage of subjects of which to write about and thus I would eventually abandon whichever blog I was trying to keep at the moment. Since I’ve returned to school this year, I’m going to use this latest online diary as a way of keeping my writing skills sharp. Years of not scribing on a daily basis has left them somewhat atrophy. Anyway, I’ll posting essays, mostly about games and movies (my first love is film), in the hopes that I can expand my mind back into the deep recesses I once explored with great zeal many years ago…

Here’s a video I made on Earth day. I originally posted it in two parts over at my GameSpot page but thought it would serve as a nice quasi-introduction to the guy who writes these dribble. Enjoy!

-Lex

P.S. I was unusually sleepy that morning, hence the sudden pauses. I was also trying to avoid saying “huh” every other word, as is often the case with inexperienced public speakers like yours truly. Hopefully I can overcome my reservations as I make more of these.

haphazard-like entry

2008-04-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Since progress on my induction into the ranks of game making is moving at a snail’s pace (thanks in part to the tangle of bureaucracy that proceeds the acquisition of a forty-thousand dollar loan), there isn’t much to write about on that front at the moment. Instead, I’ll muse about the goings on of the past several days and nights.

Sunday:

Cleaned (one of my favorite hobbies ::smirks cynically::) Put up some shelves. Re-rearranged some furniture in my room to open up the space and give me a little more elbow room. Things have been rather claustrophobic in here ever since the HDTV and it’s accompanying table moved in. Still looking for a lucky recipient to whom to give my ten-year old set. Then there’s the question of getting rid of my much-too-large entertainment center. At least most of my monster and femme fatale figures still have a home for the time being.

Monday:

All was peachy-keen. Called home whilst on my break and had my mom tell me to have my resume brought up to date. According to my aunt, there will be job openings posted late this week at the UM school of medicine. They’ll be looking for fast typists who have a background in medical services. Auntie M says that six or seven years of experience at Quest Diagnostics should put me on their short list of candidates.

Tuesday:

Founded another blog. Shot a vlog early in the morning just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. Since sunrise is close to my bedtime, it means that I have to shoot by-the-seat of my pants. Which is worth it since I photograph better under natural light. Plus my Canon works best in heavy light conditions. Such a natural restriction makes shooting on overcast days a bummer, since the images never come out as sharp and clear as they should. I was going to post it on my GameSpot page, but their uploader seems to be on the fritz. A not-too-uncommon occurrence at that site. With the sandman creeping up on me, I gave up on trying to upload the video and hit the sack for the day… Later that night at work, I fell ill (some stomach pain and nausea accompanied with bouts of vomiting) and passed out in my car. My friend, Nancy, after some urging from the brass, went to look for me. She found me and alerted the bosses who went ahead and gave the old lady a ring at three-thirty in the morning. Mommy-dearest drove up to Miramar to pick me up. Abandoned Rose (my Lancer) at her parking spot. Don’t remember much after that.

Wednesday:

Woke up a little shaky this afternoon and called out sick from work. They can make due without me for a night.

Currently:

Since Viddler was much recommended so I’ve uploaded Tuesday morning’s vlog there rather than wait till GS fixed it's goddamn video uploader… Seems I misplaced my phone’s charger. All the chargers for various wireless apparatuses scattered around my room will make finding it quite the chore ::sighs::

-13x

Salutations

2008-04-22T04:03:00.000-07:00

One botched suicide and some seven years (and countless therapy sessions) later I find myself owning yet another blog which will, depending on my resolve to keep it alive, perhaps end up just an ever work-in-progress from now till the end of time. From here on out you’ll find essays on videogames and musings concerning my paces through the halls of academia on my way to becoming some sort of artiste in the game design industry. Stay tuned and you might even see a vlog from time to time; and perhaps even a podcast. I might even let you play my game when it gets made.

-13x