• In Ohio, there’s enough humidity for a fish to live on land. In Colorado Springs, there’s barely enough for a cactus to scrape by.
• In Ohio, temperatures regularly soar into the upper 90s during the summer, while Colorado Springs’s temperature varies between the upper 70′s (for overcast) to mid-80′s (sunny). In fact, most news reporters out here think that the upper 80′s with low humidity are real “scorchers.”
• Ohio has the Appalachians, which I’m not sure I’d want to go see; Colorado Springs has the Rockies, which I can see from my back porch.

Basically, I’m really enjoying our new locale. The move went well, with nary a hitch, and we actually got off fairly cheaply considering.

After getting settled into our new townhouse for two days, we took off for the 600 mile drive up to Yellowstone for a family reunion, where we spent time in Jackson Hole, went white-water rafting, and spent a whole day in the park. It was a great trip, and I’ll have pictures once my brother sends a CD to me of all the ones he took. He’s got a really nice camera and knows how to use it, and a lot of the pictures should be spectacular. Yellowstone itself is just amazing — how nature crammed so much stuff into one park is almost incomprehensible. We saw Old Faithful, elk, bison, coyotes, and more, but my favorites in the park were probably the Sulfur Cauldrons, particularly the Churning Cauldron.

The Churning Cauldron is basically this super-heated pool with sulfur bubbling up from underneath it, with steam billowing from it at the top of a hill. So me, still acclimating to the 7,000 foot elevation, basically gasping for air at the top of the hill, start inhaling vast amount of humid steam/sulfur air, which is not very fun (the wind would occasionally blow the wretched stuff in a different direction for a few blessed seconds, providing me with fresh air). But it’s an amazing sight, and the sulfur is boiling up at such a furious pace…I hadn’t seen anything like it before. Nearby is also the Dragon’s Cave, which is a natural cave that, due to water spilling in and out of it and the steam plume constantly streaming out of the entrance, really looks and sounds like the home of a dragon.

Once we got back, we had a few more days to get our stuff arranged (and I got a new 37″ LCD HDTV as a graduation present), and then I started work. I don’t really want to say too much for a variety of reasons, but suffice to say that it wasn’t really what I was expecting after having moved across the country. I’m basically on “overhead,” meaning they are still looking for a specific spot on a project for me. Kind of a bummer — mostly just because I’m going insane sitting at my desk 40 hours a week with nothing to do. It’s probably one of the best problems a person could have, but having a job doing nothing isn’t as great as it might sound. I’ve been trying to keep myself doing “job-specific” things, like studying up on coding languages, writing some code, familiarizing myself with the company, etc, but I also take frequent breaks to make sure my mind is still there when this is all over.

For Colorado sights, we haven’t done too much. We went to Fourth of July fireworks at the Air Force Academy and a BBQ at my cousin’s house, but, other than that, have mostly just been getting settled still. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find time to go see the Garden of the Gods soon.

Here’s a photo of up-and-coming band, featuring Steve “Red Drum” Fischer on the drums, Joe “Loud” Ferguson on vocals, Dave “This is how I do Star Power” Reed shredding on the guitar, and Matt “Groovin’” Groves strumming a mean bass line.

Personally, I played a little bass and guitar, and did quite a few vocals. I “sang” quite a few songs, including some like More Than A Feeling which are way out of my league. It should be noted that songs that are in my league don’t necessarily sound any better, but I at least feel like I give them good attempts (things like Reptilia and Dani California). We may be doing it again tomorrow as a “going away” type lunch for me, but I’m not sure — might just be a normal lunch.

Playing with friends from work was definitely a great experience, and something that I’ll definitely miss (and hope to build up) at my new job in Colorado Springs. I doubt we’ll be taking any big lunch breaks to rock out on the 360, but I’m sure there will be opportunities to build up friendships with my new coworkers. Similarly, I think X-Box Live might actually provide a fun way to keep in touch with old friends after the move — a place we can get together and rock out still. We’ve played Halo over Live some before, but I think I actually missed a lot of out-of-work opportunities to do things with these guys, like go to movies that our wives don’t want to see and things like that.

It’s also interesting to note that some of the more innovative games nowadays are bringing together some pretty diverse people together. Games like Wii Sports and Rock Band have expanded the video game experience to so many people who had never touched a controller before. Similarly, things like Brain Age on the DS are even entertaining to my Mom and Dad, who just a few years ago I couldn’t have envisioned playing any kind of game.

While I don’t care much about the “Making of Fallout” CD (although I’ll probably take a look at it), that lunchbox is rad. It’s so infused with rad-ness that I’ll probably actually use it for lunch at my new job. The art book should also be great to look at, as I love the style of Pipboy. The bobblehead will also be great for a home or office desk.

Really looking forward to the game itself, as I immensely enjoyed Fallout and Fallout 2, and while Oblivion was a bit too open for me, the engine is top-notch and the merger of the two should be great. Everything I’ve heard so far sounds intriguing, and I hope they can pull it off for another great installment of the Brotherhood of Steel and mutant infested wastelands of the post-nuclear war US.

Things I did:

• Finished “On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1″ from Penny Arcade
• Played a large chunk of Half-Life 2 (after digging a controller and the game, along with Bio-Shock, out of an already-packed box)
• Watched Juno
• Watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1

I played this episodic game rather episodically — little chunks of areas and quests at a time.

It is tough to tell how good the game is, mostly because of the affection most people who play it feel towards the subject material — that is, Penny Arcade and its familiar characters. Given that, the game itself actually delivers and feels like you’re playing through one of their hilarious comics, with a healthy does of Lovecraft heaped on top to add a hook to sustain the plot. The graphics are stylized to mimic Gabe’s artwork in the comic, the dialogue rings of Tycho’s loquacious tone, and, as with the comic, the combination is largely successful.

Like many of Lovecraft’s tales, however, the game itself is rather short. It took me approximately 8-10 hours to complete, but I could easily see it only taking 4-6 hours if played more aggressively or if I had been a bit more astute and hadn’t needed to backtrack as much for items. Gabe’s special attack on the PC is annoying to the point that I almost stopped doing it — pounding the spacebar to fill a meter to the point of nearly breaking my keyboard wasn’t fun, and I hope that this mechanic is changed for future episodes. A friend asked, “Is it worth $20?” It is — it delivered an extremely enjoyable experience and left me waiting for the duo’s future episodes.

Half-Life 2

This game is old. It’s so archaic that the lambda on the cover probably house some ancient, mystical power. If it weren’t for the number 2 in the title, you might think it was the first game ever made, possibly even pre-dating computers. (Note: the game was actually released in 2004, a scant 4 years ago.)

Anyway, I received the Orange Box for Christmas, largely for Portal which I hastily devoured one Saturday back in January, and then discarded the remaining offerings housed on the disc. I picked it up yesterday, though, and had a blast playing through it. It offers a decent amount of varied gameplay for a FPS (vehicles, ant-lion commanding, standard FPS), and just when you start to tire of one style, it switches to another.

I mostly just wish you could use the gravity gun directly on enemies, but being able to throw any nearby environmental clutter is nearly as good. Anyway, Orange Box is very likely the best value game ever if you haven’t already played most of the content (which many probably have).

Edit: So I just got to the part where the gravity gun gets super-charged and you can use it directly on enemies. It’s even more awesome than I hoped it would be.

Juno

The movie was alright. I resisted seeing it for a long time because of things I’d heard from friends — it was too “cutesy,” the dialogue was too cleverly crafted to seem natural, or the dialogue was all “monotone” — none of the characters had different depth. While I could definitely appreciate all those criticisms (“Oh my blog!” …), the movie was enjoyable. It’s not something I’d watch again, but I don’t regret watching it a single time.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This movie is a sort of “fictional documentary,” providing an entertaining account of the facts, while providing or speculating about particular unknowns. While it has a long run-time (2 hours, 39 min), it manages to pass the time fairly quickly with only a few entertainment droughts throughout the show. Please note there may be some SPOILERS below, other than the obvious plot point in the title.

Bob Ford is a transformation throughout the movie — from adoring teen to spurned traitor to, finally, a repenting mourner. He mostly seems a lost soul for most of his life, never really knowing what he wants. This seems to lead to his collusion with the Missouri governor — he is just looking for someone to accept him. Was he a coward? Until his last days, yes. Once he was able to accept (and mourn) his actions, it seemed that he found his niche in life and was able to be at peace with the world.

Brad Pitt did a great job of portraying Jesse James — ruthless when needed, paranoid as hell, and always charismatic. I often wondered about the scene where he died — earlier in the movie, he asks Charlie Ford, “Have you ever thought about suicide?” The implications are pretty obvious (and also part of the dramatization, I’m sure). I don’t think anything historically suggests that was the case, but, as with Peter’s denial of Jesus, it is all the more potent when the betrayed know of the traitorous act beforehand, and still allow it to happen.

Anyway, long post and I’m out.

Recently, I’ve been reading the Civil War story arc from Marvel which concluded about a year ago (and started maybe two years ago). I read the first couple issues when they first came out, but then got pulled away, and now I’m playing catch-up — which is fine with me, because I actually like reading entire story arcs in one swoop without having to wait for the future issues. I read a lot of the trade paperbacks for that reason — they are a complete storyline in one convenient book, and I don’t collect them just to collect them, so I don’t miss having the physical comics.

Anyway, I’m enjoying Civil War so far. It’s pretty neat to see the disparity in talent between some of the comics — all the men look pretty much identical in a title like Thunderbolts, whereas the painted scenes in the Captain America issues are pretty breathtaking. Once I’m done reading the issues I have, I’ll likely go through them and add the artists and writers I enjoyed the most to my Comic Scout account so I can keep an eye out for additional stuff. The saga as a whole is less brutal than I thought it would be — as I’m in the final stretch, only one “major” hero has been killed, and he’s kind of a C-list guy at best in my eyes (Goliath). Given it’s supposed to be a brutal civil war between the heroes, nothing has really torn at my heartstrings so far (even though I know Cap is gonna bite the dust soon).

The title I’ve most enjoyed are the Frontline titles, which I wasn’t really looking forward to. They basically cover the Registration Act from the perspective of two newspaper journalists, which allows the books to cover a lot of information and tie some things together. Additionally, each comic has a second story about Robbie “Speedball” Baldwin, who is “the most hated man in America,” and, again, offers a unique perspective on the entire war. The final portion covers an Atlantean “sleeper cell” thing which I don’t care for much, but you can’t have your cake and eat it, too (although what’s the point of having cake if you can’t eat it? Maybe I got the saying wrong…). Anyway, the unique perspective of these titles combined with the reporters trying to actually get to the root of the Registration Act gives these titles something more substantiate than the other titles, which frequently just follow the pattern:

1. “Reports of unregistered super-hero!”
2. “Send in the Cape-Killers!”
3. “Wow! He wiped out 3 squads of Cape-Killers and got away!”

The art and writing for the sub-arcs in each title both vary pretty widely, but some titles (like the Captain America ones, surprisingly enough to me — although I’m quite the sucker for painted comics) really deliver on both fronts. I might read the House of M arc next, or possibly some Batman or Iron Man titles.

That’s a good question, and I don’t really have an answer for you. I suppose they originally leapt from my imagination a few years ago when I was naming a shared iTunes library and needed a cool name. I often imagine them somewhat just floating in the space, and occasionally devouring entire cosmos in a single bite. A bite really isn’t the right term, though — it’s more like a snake sluggishly inhaling an egg, with its jaws unhinged and cavernous. That’s what they are in my head — they’re not malicious aliens from Omicron Persei VIII coming to destroy the Earth, although they may mistakenly swallow our galaxy in a harmless mistake.

However, this post isn’t really to clarify what cosmos devouring frogs are or are not. It’s mostly just to establish a post on this blog, and claim this as my space. See, I had a blog before — 50pixelsofevil.com — but I had it for the wrong reasons. I had it for other people, so that I could write or make money, or something…I’m not really sure at this point. But, suffice to say, I wasn’t writing for myself or about the things I wanted to write about, which is mostly just the daily going-ons of my life and the thoughts that emerge from my strange cranium (for instance, just yesterday, I was thinking my head would probably make a beautiful skull, although doubtful it would compare with something like Piltdown Man).

It’s also because writing things down helps your memory, and it will probably expand my vocabulary and improve my writing skills, as well. Additionally, this blog doesn’t have the stigma attached to the name that 50 Pixels of Evil did (despite being harmless). Nah, it just has Armageddon frogs.