Thought about it earlier today. My goal is to compose game music and I know I'm on the right track. But the main purpose of this blog was really to express the joy I get from gaming and how I feel like it makes life more complete. Music inspires me and it's somewhat a spiritual thing you could say, comedy is also along those lines. Other than sensual moments with the right person and the right time what else feels better than a combination of happiness and laughter? I place a high importance on both of these.

Finally there's gaming, it's an absolute passion. I love sports and being competitive, but I have a Bowflex in my room that I do a few sets on a day and that's my physical activity. But gaming makes me strive to get better at something, I take pride in my F-Zero skills or maybe more relevant, my rising Halo skills, or my Smash potential. But games like the new Mario Galaxy offer a feeling of delight playing them that few if any movies could achieve. The thrills, scares, and curiosity I experienced playing Eternal Darkness. The sense of co-operation you get from playing team games in something like Halo or ruling over your troops in an RTS.

There's no doubt people are creative, but in the technology world they're pushing numbers right now to get better technology and so creativity is lacking a bit in some games. But the medium is still young and in its childhood stages. A game isn't a movie.

I just have to say that the combination of these in my life is perfect. I hope to some day change what sound can do for the industry. And I might even go back and get a degree in developing games, in which case I'll work on a good comedy game, which will get a cult status.

Recently, since I've been at college I've grown more fond of Apple. I had the iPod and was impressed (even if they only last as long as their warranty) before college, but it is mandaory we get the most recent MacBook Pro computers. It's part of tuition. Something I love about the company is they generally keep things very simple and they only make worthwhile products. (They don't waste time making models that are useless (like the 360 Arcade, generally).However their press conference made something very clear this year: They're getting ahead of themselves. It was pretty clear with the iPhone last year carrying only a 4 or 8GB hard drive and an iPod touch with 8 and 16GB hard drives, If these things are basically supposed to carry our lives on them we need something more.Which brings me to the worst part of the keynote this year, the MacBook Air. I love the fact they're emphasizing that you use the internet for everything and get it all wireless. That's perfect. But you HAVE to have a better solution than to wirelessly use an optical drive. With sites like Direct-2-Drive Apple should work with them to get all their products on there. It's the big omission from there grand, yet simple plan.As a side-note on the bad parts of Apples plan, where are the HD movie rentals on computers? (they all have HD screens now.) Also I rented Zoolander on iTunes and it still won't play, 4 or 5 days later.The good is pretty obvious, the ease of use of almost everything. The functionality of things like the iPhone and iPods really do enhance daily life, make commutes much easier, and make jogs or walks much more enjoyable. MacBooks and MacBook Pros have enough to suit almost anyone's wants and needs. And Mac OS X is simple, visually pleasing, and efficient. I still love Windows and you can't deny it with all the software it has, but its not as simple and Vista certainly isn't efficient (takes 512 RAM to run it, yet a rig with 1GB can still have trouble in my experience.)Basically I can't see why anyone would buy an Air. You can get a MacBook Pro for just a few hundred more that's much better, more well equipped, and, honestly, not a lot thicker or heavier. Sure thin, light computers which work completely wirelessly might be the future, but at the moment I don't see a place for the Air.

Some games I just have to buy for the experience, if it's that unique. I'll be getting Too Human as I love Silicon Knight's work, they've always done interesting stuff. However there comes a point when playing those games isn't enough, you've gotta be skilled to.
Which is why lately I've found myself more than ever playing and refining my skills. The games I'm really working on are Forza 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Mario Kart (DS), F-Zero (GX), and eventually I'll do Smash and Halo.I'll be getting less games because of this.
Christmas List:-Xbox Play and Charge Kit-Super Mario Galaxy (playing this at EB brougt out the little kid in me)-Custom Robo Arena (My nephew and I will be playing this together)-I'm trying to find a way to get a GarageGames.com Development Kit, as a kick start for my game work.

This is an absolutely excellent game. I'm glad to own it, it deserves sales. It's a simple Wii Remote only control scheme, but it gets tons of mileage from that. The presentation is very nice, graphics are very colorful, and there are some very cool design ideas in these levels. Sound is fairly epic for a game with levels that aren't particularly massive. The music fits the moods though, and the level sizes feel just perfect. There's a few clipping issues with the graphics and animations that could have been added that weren't. This is pretty noticeably because the camera angles they give you make it so you can hardly notice. Impressive and fun.
Since I got that my list has changed in some suprising ways for Christmas:-Charge and play kit (for 360)-Super Mario Galaxy (the demo at Gamestop left me in awe)-Medal of Honor Heroes 2-Custom Robo Arena (DS, a game for my nephew and I to play together and talk too, online.)-Garagegames.com game development kit. (2d or 3d doesn't matter)

Well my wishlist has changed due to that:
-Zack and Wiki. I have to get this, I'm not letting a game that's of this calibur not see sales.
-360 Play and Charge Kit
-Super Mario Galaxy. Forget the scores when I read about all of the little subtlties to this game and cool little multiplayer ideas it started making more sense.
-Meroid Prme 3 OR Medal of Honor Heroes 2. Simple enough Halo 3 is off th list because i don't care to play FPS on anyhting besides Wii or PCs.-Custom Robo Arena, a game for me and my nephew to play together online.
So I still have to cruise through Forza 2 in single player before i even think about multiplayer. (I really want to master that game) So I'm holding off on Xbox Live Gold membership for at least the time. Maybe I'll get it along with Smash Brawl for my b day. (Coincidentally the same day Smash is released.)

So I've always ben a person to think things out and in general just think a ton. So besides for just thinking I have a few other serious hobbies.Being very general here; they are music, comedy, and video games. Probably in that order.
I'm in music school so general music fronts are covered, though I have many side interests aside from general types of music. I'm working on creating a semi free form genre of music, but it has some structure almost like a pop song but with many twists.
Then there's my comedy stuff. I've always placed a heavy importance on it because life is about being happy and to me laughing creates a type of happiness that's irreplaceable. I try to be very creative with this too and as such my humor is still sensical but yet far fetched in many regards. (I don't find random humor that funny, because too often people just recite words, which in my opinion doesn't make something funny.) So lately I've been writing comedy stories on Facebook lately to better my skills.
Finally there's video games and I've tried to develop levels when I had some Source tools, I was a casual CSS player. But my most significant contribution will obiously be in soundtrack creating. Part of my dual major here in college is film scoring (the other major is general music education)
Guitar is going great and I'm currently reading up on the industry in a book called "Get Rich Gaming" which is def a good resource.Anyways include keeping my dorm clean, clothes washed, exercising, and my maintaing good social/mental/physical health (Bowflex is only a small art of that) . (Not to mention I'm getting somewhere around a 90 in all my ****s which I'd consider acceptable for a first semester student in college) Life is going great and very busy. There's just enough time to meet up with friends a couple times a week too.
And once I get totally settled maybe a serious relationship will come into the equation.

So I couldn't help it the Red Sox, NFL season, all that stuff, I needed a TV antenna. So I went to Best Buy and picked one up for $30, it was absolutely terrible. So I exchanged it for credit and picked one up that was $70. It picked up a lot more channels but still had ghosting everywhere and colors were inconsistent and a lot of channels were just fuzzy.
So I exchanged that and got a Linksys wireless router for $50 and got $20 back from the other purchase. Nintendo Wi-Fi Matchmaking is down for the moment but otherwise I'm on the Wii Shop Channel, downloading puzzles for Picross, etc..
So scratch to things off my Christmas Wishlist.It's Now down to...
-One year of Xbox live-Halo 3-Batallion Wars 2-Ninja Gaiden DS-A Charge and Play kit for my 360 controller so I can save money on AA's.-AA's for Wii controllers.-One other thing that would be nice is to get my Ibanez RG 470 (guitar) repaired. I have a Taylor hollow body guitar, but I'm in music school andhaving 2 guitars with me would be a nice luxory.
Just to make sure I'm not asking for too much, all told that comes to.....$50+$60+$50+$30+$20+$15(lots of AAs)+$50 (not a on of repair is needed on that guitar)=$275. That's a good chunk of money when they're already paying for college....

-Wi-Fi router compatible with Wii and DS. It also has to have extra ethrenet ports so I can have 360 and Wii hooked up at once.
-HDTV Antenna.
-1 year Xbox Live
-Halo 3
-Batallion Wars 2. (Still undecided on that one though)

I really was looking forward to Batallion Wars 2 for a long time, but it just might be the game I have to cut from my list.
Hopefully soon I'll beat Trauma Center, Elebits, Lunar Knights, and Geist. I need trade in money. When it comes down to it I play F Zero GX as my main game. (GC) I can't wait for a Wii version with online to come out. Unreal Tournament is my shooter. (MAC)
Wario Ware and Wii Sports are the party games. Mario Kart DS has intense online competition for a handheld game and Hotel Dusk is so novel I don't want to get rid of it. Star Fox Command is the other game that's great online and single player and for that I wouldn't sell it. Resident Evil 4 Wii still has a lot of legs left. I've still got a bunch to do AND it's a game I just really like so I don't think I'd sell it. Mario Strikers Charged is great online. Madden 07 isn't that great but I need football and so I'll just have to be satisfied with it. Killer 7 is insane its also a novel game I want to keep.
Picross, Pokemon, and Advance Wars are all games I could eventully see myself selling.
So Halo 3 and Ninja Gaiden DS look like the games I'll be getting this year. Maybe Batallion Wars 2.
-I gotta beat my games soon.

IGN left out some important deturring points in their review. The controls aren't senstive enough when fielding. Players either run full speed or stand still. This makes it really frustrating to catch flyballs and more importantly, field grounders. I've missed numerous balls because my outfielders over ran or under ran the ball.Also don't go into Success Mode expecting to play any baseball games. For me it was 2-3 hours of some kind of life management, done through menus. I got about 8 at bats over the course of 2 or 3 games. My character didn't start in any other games, as far as the game would tell you.If this had online play it'd be a serious game though. As Season Mode is definitely great, because for the most part so is play the game.On a final note when it comes to difficulty it's usualy too hard or too easy. Depending on if you pick Rookie, Normal (too hard), or Expert (Still too hard).
Smash Bros Brawl is being released on my b day February 10th. So there's money not being spent which is awesome. Hopefully this means they delay Mario Kart too so I have time to get through my other games before that comes out.
So Batallion Wars 2, Halo 3, and Ninja Gaiden DS (or less likely Zelda Phantom Hourglass).

Also at  party with friends last night Wii totally kicked butt there. Wario Ware and Wii Sports were clutch. I think some of them actaully want a Wii now. Which would be awesome, if we could have like system link BWii or just me not having to bring my Wii around to people's dorms.