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F.E.A.R.

I am having a great time discovering all my PC games again now that I ponied up and bought a decent video card. With my old viseo card Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft always ran pretty well but I had to adjust Oblivion and F.E.A.R. down to 640x480 with all the pretty settings turned down to get any sort of decent frame rate.

This may sound cliché but playing a PC game the way developers intended is really the only way to go. It is truly a different experience. Playing some of these games has more in common with watching a movie than playing OG Super Mario Bros. While Mario was a ton of fun there was no doubt that you were playing a game that existed outside of yourself. The immersive experience of playing F.E.A.R. has the same hypnotic qualities of going to a movie. I find myself playing the same section of the game over and over just to see what it looks like to kill people from different angles and with different weapons. It's like watching the Matrix lobby scene but choosing to have Neo bust through the metal detector with a bucket full of grenades instead of a coat full of guns.

I'm a Star

Back in junior high I had a very small role as a young Tex Watson for a film created by Biola University. My family kept a copy on VHS but I haven't seen it in years. Just today my Dad sent me a link Tex Watson's ministry website, Abounding Love, which posted the movie in its entirety (about 35 minutes). My 30 seconds of screen time appear in the first couple of minutes. Make sure to keep watching past the first interview scene in prison to catch a bonus shot of my Dad as an extra in the church scene wearing a bolo tie. The movie is based on a very interesting story that is worth reading about. However the budget was, clearly, very low. I think they spent all their money on fake mustache rentals. =)

Video Link: http://www.aboundinglove.org/media/index.php

Ascension

I spent a good portion of the weekend liberating myself from CDs and it feels great. I have transcended the physical medium of compact discs and ascended to pure data.

Basically I went through every single CD and matched it up with its cover art. If the CD was in good condition and I had the case it went in my Music Trader pile so I can get sweet sweet credit. If the CD was scratched or missing its case it went into the trash. Every CD that I had a desire to ever listen to again got ripped. I have upwards of 4800 songs in my collection now. The only CDs I kept were a rare Jason and Jane Christmas CD that they made for friends and the Hulk Hogan CD which I couldn't bear to throw away.

"But... but... what about the cover art and the liner notes?" I know. I thought about this. I realized I'm not 16 anymore and really don't read liner notes after I first buy the CD (if at all). If you are reading this Cory, I apologize. I don't mean to disparage your craft.