Auto-Apocrypha

Summer has made a lot of progress since her accident. The casts are off both legs and her arm, but she still has to wear a brace on one leg. She can bear weight on her left leg, still working on the right. Most of the bruises are gone, still a few cuts, but she can transfer herself in and out of a wheelchair with almost no problems. She's leaving the Rehab center on Thursday, and in another 3 weeks the brace should be off her other leg and she should be able to go back and forth between a wheelchair and crutches until however long it takes for her to regain enough strength to walk.

She'll be living in Dallas until January, I guess the plan is for her to return to Albuquerque after that. In the meantime, I guess we'll just see each other as often as we can and try to make the best of it. Part of me wants so bad to just drop everything (again) and re-arrange my entire life (again) to make it better for her. But I really do have too much going on. Hell, I can't even update this journal on a consistent basis.

Anyway, it is cool as hell how fast she is getting better and that she won't have to live in a hospital bed after this week. The rest is details.

Stolen from azzy23

(x-posted from MySpace)

I'm planning on buying a new guitar later this month; over the years, especially this past one, I've had to get rid of a lot of my higher end instruments in order to a)feed my drug habit and b)pay for sex. All I've got now is a busted-ass Squire Stratocaster with a broken whammy bar. Since this is no longer able to keep up with my advanced master class finger wizard awesomeness, uh... I'm buying a new guitar, like I said in the first sentence.

I've decided on a Gretsch, since other guitars are for pussies and grandpas, and I think you know it. But I'm deeply torn between two different models. They're only about 50 bucks apart in price, so take a look and let me know what you think! Epecially if you have any fucking clue what you're talking about!!

This is the Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet (w/ Bigsby).

This single cutaway, semi-hollowbody guitar recalls the glory days of the early '60s when Gretsch guitars set the standard for rock, rockabilly, and country guitar. It has an arched maple top, mahogany back, set mahogany neck, and a rosewood fretboard. The pickups are Gretsch mini dual-coils, with volume, tone, and 3-way selector. It also features a Bigsby B50 tailpiece, chromeplated hardware, and a gloss urethane finish. Very cool.

Electromatic Series single cutaway, semi-hollowbody

Arched laminated maple top

Mahogany back

Set mahogany neck

Rosewood fretboard

22 frets

1-11/16" nut width

Adjusto-Matic bridge

Bigsby vibrato

chromeplated hardware

Gloss urethane finish

Chrome vintage-style machine heads

Word. Now compare to:

This is the Gretsch G5135 Electromatic Corvette (also w/ Bigsby)

And a few more photos of it, just because it is DAMN sexy:

Buckle up boys and girls, because this Corvette will take you on a ride to the wild side of Gretsch. Mega'Tron pickups howl at the wind, and the ultra slim design means you can take this baby on the go! Made in response to the numerous players who have requested a contemporary version of this short-lived model from the 1960s, the G5135 Corvette guitar combines modern features with retro styling into one instrument that is truly built for speed.

The ultra slim, solid mahogany body is lightweight and easy to shoulder, without sacrificing the unique, biting tonal properties for which mahogany is known. Additional features include a set mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets, adjustable truss rod, an anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge and Bigsby B50 Tailpiece, dot position markers, pearloid headstock inlays, black pickguard, chrome plated hardware, vintage style tuners and G-Arrow knobs.

Solid mahogany body

Mahogany neck (24.6" scale)

Rosewood fingerboard

21 medium jumbo frets

Bone nut (1-11/16" wide)

Vintage style machine heads

Dual Mega'Tron pickups

1tone pot control setup

G-arrow knobs

Anchored Adjusto-matic bridge

Bigsby B50 vibrato tailpiece

Gretsch knurled strap knobs 

and Chrome Hardware.

So, yeah. My instincts fire towards the Corvette because it is slightly more expensive, a very pretty shade of red and named after an American race car.

The Pro Jet is slightly less expensive, and semi-hollowbody where the Corvette is solid. The pickups aren't as HOTT as the 'Vette's but the Pro Jet has a slightly slimmer, easier-to-solo neck, especially with 22 frets compared to 21.

I really can't decide! Let me know what you think! Especially if you really know about Gretsch and can break down the differences between these models better for me!

So, 2 months later I wander back onto this thing...

I promise, I'll try to be better.

There's still a buncha junk going on... right now, everything sucks pretty hard because my phone is busted, my computer has melted down beyond all repair and the starter and battery on my Toyota simultaneously epic-failed over the weekend. Oh, and my Xbox360 died a while back too. I'm not having much luck with devices and contraptions.

Phone will be fixed soon, car is getting out of the shop today.... computer is a whole other problem. Besides all this, though, Summer was in a really, really bad car accident in Albuquerque. She's back in Dallas now, at Baylor. She needs a few surgeries and extensive physical rehabilitation. She broke her right wrist, both legs and her right ankle and also dislocated both knees and lost part of her right big toe. They say it could be a year before she can really walk again.

So, I mostly spend my days off at the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation keeping her company and trying to keep her spirits up, which is awkward as hell considering a few months ago we were engaged and now we're not. I really don't know what to do about it, though. I love her very much and want to do everything I can, but I don't think I can really contribute to a relationship right now... especially what's left of ours. I dunno. I'm committed to my school plan here, too, which makes committing to her a difficult prospect if she wants to return to Albuquerque as well.

Really, school is the best thing I have going on the horizon, aside from having steady hours at the bookstore again. I'm hoping to work the last of the details out this week; I'm enrolling at Richland to study Interactive Simulation and Game Design with a focus on Animation. Between my job, Pell Grants, and Stafford Loans I should be able to get a new computer, pay for all my school, and live on my own after the Fall Semester fairly comfortably.

Anyway, that's the basic update. Shit is haywire but looking up, except for this situation with Summer which is as tragic as it is fucking perplexing.

Well... looks like I left this thing just sitting here for a good long minute. It's a complicated, messy complicated mess but I am single and back in Dallas again. As of this juncture, I don't really want to talk about it. The shit hit the fan not long after my last post, actually... I've been home for a while, but kind of in shock and in varying stages of liqourfied stupor.

I'm starting to come back to my senses now, waking up to a life in shambles and what not, so I'm trying to figure out what to do from Square One at this point still. Work, save money, return to school, write the Great American Novel, paint a masterwork, record an album, beat Super Mario Galaxy, who knows. The sky is the limit.

So. Here we go again.

Ah, sequels. As the 00's march on, more and more sequels line the shelves, and 2008 is no exception. This year seems to be the year of PART FOUR, in particular. Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, SoulCalibur 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Call of Duty 4, Street Fighter 4... that's 6 just off the top of my head. I could give a shit about Call of Duty but I've heard the latest one is actually pretty cool. And all the rest of the part fours on that list I'm looking mighty forward to, except I probably won't get to play the new Metal Gear Solid unless it goes cross-platform at the last minute.

The Devil May Cry series has a somewhat uneven reputation. The 2001 original more or less launched the "extreme combat" sub-genre of hack-n-slash games and was the first 3D game to really capture the button mashing, reflex draining insanity of older 2D classics. It had some flaws, to be sure, but it was unlike anything else on the market and head and shoulders above its competition. Devil May Cry 2, on the other hand, was a perfect example of how to take a great game and make it suck. While the story was compelling, that's about all that can be said for it. They even made Dante, one of the coolest video game characters of all time, a lame-ass bastard for it. So when it came time to make another sequel, they opted to rewind the clock. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening was actually a prequel to the first game, so Dante was a wise-cracking badass again, and the combat system was completely overhauled into a nirvana of mayhem and gore. The only real problem with the game is that it was so difficult, most players ended up slitting their wrists or swearing off video games forever before they got to the end. Or past the first stage even.

Which brings us to the newly-released Devil May Cry 4. Continuing the utterly incomprehensible chronology of the series, this actually takes place AFTER parts 1 and 3, but before part 2. Not that it matters much, except it means we get the cool version of Dante again instead of part 2's grim and gritty version. And actually, you only get to control Dante for just under less than half the game, since this installment introduces a new main protagonist, Nero. Dante is actually your enemy for most of the game, and even a boss fight about halfway through.

I have to say, I like Nero. The new mechanics he brings to the table, namely the Devil Bringer (as opposed to Dante's Devil Trigger) make this game exciting and fun in ways I didn't even realize I wanted from a game. And he stands pretty well on his own as a kickass anti-hero, the only real problem being... well, he's not that much different from Dante. Hell, you can barely even tell them apart. Check out the box art. That's Nero in the foreground and Dante up in the left corner. It's better than the passing-of-the-torch we saw in Metal Gear Solid 2, where the inimitable Solid Snake was replaced by a limp-wristed ladyboy named Raiden. Still, it begs the question: why? If the new hero is essentially the same as the old one, with just a few mechanical tweaks, why bother with it at all?

Nevertheless, DMC4 is an awesome game. If you're a fan of the previous games, this one takes the series to new heights. If you've never played any of them before, this is a great place to start. It has the beautiful combat system of part 3, plus Nero's awesome new Devil Bringer powers, and the difficulty is much closer to the original: the game is challenging and requires finesse and strategy without ever being merciless just for the sake punishment.

My only real complaints are that many aspects of the game are hallmarks of a bygone era. God of War proved that a game with extreme, stylish combat could still have interesting puzzles without subtracting from the ass-kicking. There are no real puzzles here to speak of, but there are about a million "defeat the monsters to open the door" moments, often ten or fifteen or so strung back to back. The camera is also very last-gen, with limited control, and bizarre perspective changes that will leave you lost as to what direction should be pressing to move forward. That lazy developer's trick of invisible walls to keep you from going where they don't want you to is also in full effect here.

I actually didn't mind the back-tracking as much as some people, but I was disappointed by the lack of boss variety. There are three main bosses outside of the "end guys", and you'll fight each one not once, not twice, but... yes, thrice. Once as Nero, then in reverse order as Dante, and then once again towards the end in the signature Capcom boss redux.

While I expected a little bit more, the game is absolutely gorgeous, impossible to put down and, once again, head and shoulders above its competition. It took me a little under 10 hours to beat on Normal difficulty, but there's an extra survival mode, and multiple more difficulties to unlock. You can also replay any completed mission at any time in order to achieve a better ranking, so despite the relative brevity the game is highly re-playable. I only rented it since I am broke, but I will definitely shell out the cash down the line even though I've already beaten it, which says alot.

I give Devil May Cry 4 850 out of 1000 tasteless yet scrumptious up-skirts.

This weekend has been one rusty trombone after another. I didn't get the job at Bookworks. They want to keep my stuff and might have something for me later, but I'm "not the perfect candidate for right now".

This is getting ridiculous. I'm desperate. I'm afraid to even apply at McDonald's, they might turn me down too. Geezus.

So, apparently, the new James Bond movie is going to be called... Quantum of Solace.

Seriously?

SRSLY??

First we get Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and now... this.  Even if you excuse titles like Attack of the Clones, it would seem we are seriously running out of good titles for shit. I mean, goddamn.

At least one of the girls is killer:

What's Your Political Philosophy? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Green The Green Party believes in an America where decisions are made by the people and not by a few giant corporations. Their environmental goal is a sustainable world where nature and human society co-exist in harmony. Green 100% New Democrat 100% Old School Democrat 95% Libertarian 70% Foreign Policy Hawk 65% Pro Business Republican 40% Socially Conservative Republican 15%

Well, I did vote Nader in 2000. Still, weird.


Stolen from azzy23

Summer and I went to Karaoke at the Atomic Cantina... I've been the whole world over, but rarely a finer karaoke venue. Perhaps Scaraoke in Dallas, but this is way less serious and there's far more girls with rockin' bodies tearing up the dancing floor and puking on your shoes.

Anyway, it was fun but exhausting and my body is now 98% Jaeger. I don't even remember what I sang last night. And now today is Summer's first day of work! And I got a call back from a local bookstore, set up an interview for 5:30pm today. Schweet!

Seems like a cool place: Bookworks

Pay isn't bad either, and there's benefits for full-timers. Wish me luck.

I have some excellent news regarding: me. I've secured the artist of my dreams, Jackson Armstrong. Jack is the younger brother of my best friend Will and a monumentally talented artist and illustrator. I've been trying to work with him for years, but we could never really make our schedules intersect. Well, no more! Jackson will be turning my words into pictures on my next comic book project: Eternal Dawn.

I originally started this project with another good friend and great artist, Josh Lewis. However, distance and scheduling stalled the project during its infancy roughly 3 or 4 years ago. I'd like to work with Josh on something else down the line, but we haven't been in touch recently.

Eternal Dawn is a tale of epic horror, with many subtle and complex layers at work in the story. It is one of my favorite concepts, inspired by the old school World of Darkness books and a skewed perspective on Christian mythology and pre-History. Most of the time when I get to work on a book and it falls through, I let the idea die and just move on; but I knew I was on to something with this one, so I've kept the idea kicking around for years and I'm really really really excited to be moving it off the back-burner and start diving into it again.

I'll be polishing the script this week (and possibly next, depending on time constraints) and we should hopefully have some concept sketches and early test pages within a month at the latest. I'll talk to Jack and see if I can put some sample work of his up here so you all can see what he's capable of and how monumentally badass this book is going to be.

Aside from that, well... I've submitted a handful of horror movie reviews over at All Horror Films Dot Com, but none of them are up yet. In fact, the site hasn't been updated at all in about 4 days, so I really don't know what is going on. I'm going to write a few more and try talking to the site owner and see what's up, but I won't be wasting my time doing this much longer if shit doesn't start pulling together over there.

As I've said before, I could never really get into the Grand Theft Auto series. I've played them, they're fun, but I never really got invested in one, let alone finished it. I love "open world" style games, but the mafia is not my thing, because the mafia is for girls. So I would just run around and blow shit up until I got wasted or busted and then turn it off. It wasn't until Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction that I found an open-world game I could actually play all the way through and enjoy.

And then there's Saints Row. It's one of the original Xbox 360 titles, and one I'd actually beaten already the first time I had a 360. I got the game again for my new one, and just finished it up for a second time this weekend.

Honestly, I'm a little shocked they weren't sued over the game. It is SO MUCH like GTA it's... well, criminal. The big difference is that instead of a pseudo-serious mafia storyline with a bunch of macho posing, it's a completely ridiculous street gang storyline with enough testosterone to produce babies out of thin air. It also has far superior graphics than any GTA game (to date) and a ton of simplified features. Changing weapons is infinitely easier, you can set waypoints on your map to where you want to go so you don't have to navigate the city streets on your minimap or constantly pause to bring up the full map. The driving controls are better, the combat is far more over the top AND you can even fully customize the way your character looks (and get plastic surgery later if you change your mind). That's the short list, really. There are tons of cool features in this game.

There are a few glitches in the game, and while the variety of cars is incredible (and you can store an infinite number in your garage instead of just one, and even customize them with paint jobs, nitrous and hydraulics) there are no motorcycles, planes or helicopters.

Overall, even though it's a few years old by now, Saints Row is still a great game. If you like GTA, give it a shot; and if you don't like GTA, give it a shot anyway because, frankly, it's better.

I give it 38 out of 50 rocket launchers to the face.

I scored another interview today at a souvenir store in the Albuquerque Convention Center. She was 99% sure after the interview she said, she just wanted to look at the other candidates and go over it with the other manager. I should get a call tonight or tomorrow, for to be starting on the Mondays.

It's 8am-3pm, hopefully 5 (or more, since that's only 6 1/2 hours with lunch) shifts a week, 8 dollars an hour. Not the jackpot I pray for daily, but it will pay some bills and help me back on my feet and also GET ME OUT OF THE HOUSE.

Goodie.

I went to see Atonement in theaters recently. As you can imagine, it was entirely my idea. I practically had to drag my girlfriend along. She was out of her mind with misery. Yes. Something like that.

Actually, for what it is, Atonement isn't bad. It's far less of an obvious Oscar-grab than it seems like from the outside, and while it still retains that man-killing Jane Austen-period-drama-esque tone, it's actually set during WW2 which is a time period I have little trouble finding interest in. Keira Knightley is as smoking hot as ever and James McAvoy does a pretty decent job as well, which is good since it's clearly his character's job to keep the men interested.

You can take one look at Atonement and know if it is the kind of movie you love. If you're one of those people, you will find plenty here. But even for the rest of us, there's entertainment to be found. I usually can barely contain my vomit at this stuff, but I watched the whole thing. It's interminably long, the ending is pure cheese, and the story is one of the most depressing I've ever sat though. But that's how I feel about all these kinds of movies. Few of them are as are entertaining or well executed throughout, however.

Romney's out!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/07/romney.qa/index.html

I finally got a call back today!

From the homeless shelter!

It's part-time, and not exactly my field, but... I need work. I need work and this would be something positive and outside my typical experience. I'll admit, I'm a little afraid it might be depressing and harrowing, but I am gonna suck it up and try. My interview isn't until Monday @ 12:30 though. If I could find another part-time job with hours that fit around this, I'll be set for the time being.

As for me, bleh. Unemployment puts a real damper on everything. I am trying to stick this out. Realtionshipwise, I dunno what to do. Part of me wants to stay here a while longer and get settled in and see if things start to work out. The other part of me is afraid she'll do something really awful and self-destructive if I try to leave.

Well, I know that more than think it, really. I don't want to get it into it overmuch, but we've had some close calls.

So that's the state of things.

I've just got to get a job and get into a routine. Hopefully things will fall into place. If not, at least I'll have the money to find a viable solution if it turns out that leaving is the best thing to do.

HAVE PHOTOS!

Sorry for the poor quality on some of these, my camera likes to get shaky and blurry, especially for famous people. Anyway. Have a taste of Albuquerque:

( +7 )

I hate being broke. I think probably what I hate the most about it is not having any money. I need money for all sorts of things. You wouldn't believe. It's like capitalism is designed only to work for people who have money. INSANE. Or people who are very good at stealing.

One of the things I need money for is to start my own Design Studio, so that all that various stuff I work on from here until eternity can at least be branded, and the projects of others that I subsume can be branded as well. However, this is gonna take close to 1,000 dollars in fees and legal crap. I have the perfect name for it... however, since I can't do this right away, I'm literally afraid to post it on the internet for fear that someone will take it before I can. I just can't believe no one has it already.

As for the projects themselves... sadly, I have to hold off on news of that for a little bit too. Since Synonymous with X fell through and my personal life switched into overdrive, I haven't really worked on or written much. But I have two projects right now that are ripe and ready to move forward... deciding which to go with is tough, but much of that is going to depend on the deal I'm trying to achieve with a extraordinarily talented artist. Who, honestly, may decide in favor of neither and want to create an entirely new project for us to collaborate on. I wish I could say more, but the cat must stay in the bag for now.

In other news, it's Toonami Tuesday or something, many states are holding primaries today. CNN has promised 40 hours of non-stop coverage. I'm there!

To break it down, I want Obama to win. He is my candidate, he is the only one I can identify as holding any kind of real banner. I believe he will fight for change and I believe he could be successful.

In spite of all that, I believe Clinton has the clout and influence and personal contacts necessary to secure the nomination. Let's not fool ourselves. This is an insider's game, and that's what she is.

As for the Republicans, all I will say is that you have to be out of your goddamn mind to vote for any of them. I don't care what fine human beings they might be (and you know they aren't). If you think the last 8 years was hunky dory and we should spiral further down into debt and shame and sacrifice more American lives for a war that makes our country less and less safe from terrorist attacks every day, then go for it.

The Republican candidates are the past, the Democrat candidates are the future. Do you want more blood for oil while our country grows poorer and more defenseless and no other issue ever gets the attention it needs? Or do you want someone who is going to take the train wreck of the last 8 years and, despite whatever differences you may have with them, do everything in their power to turn it around and make America the greatest country on Earth again?

Suckily, I can't vote in this election but many of you can. Vote for change. Vote for hope. Don't vote for the white guys. We've voted for old white guys for centuries. Live a little. Please.

I bought this game on something of a lark since it was cheaper than Bioshock and I was a fan of the original comic book back in the day. It was better than I thought it would be, which is no small compliment coming from me, since I typically despise and shun all First Person Shooters. The Darkness is pretty different though.

First of all, it has a very bare bones FPS set up. You start out dual wielding some pistols and your typical FPS style tactics will serve you well. Duck, run, look for cover, go for headshots, etc. However, to make the game more fun and less tedious, there are "execution" moves. When you're facing a dozen or so guys and you don't really feel like staying behind cover long enough to pick them all off, you can just run out into to the battlezone and start firing away. In most FPS games, this is a ticket straight to hell, but in The Darkness, if you fire one of your weapons when you are right up next to an enemy, you perform one of a variety of sickening execution style moves, which never miss and automatically kill.

That's really only the beginning of the insanity. You play as Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman marked for death by his own organization. It's also his 21st birthday, which has surprises in store for everyone: it seems the men in Jackie's family (he's adopted) are cursed by an ancient evil called... you guessed it, the Darkness. The Darkness manifests inside of Jackie, granting him all sorts of demonic power to help him on what starts out as a quest for survival and ends as the search for revenge.

The Darkness powers are by far the coolest part of the game. They make the standard bang-pow FPS mechanics a thing of the past. Your first power is Creeping Dark which allows you to send a cannibalistic, snake-like extension of yourself anywhere: it can climb walls, enter vents, open doors, attack enemies, destroy objects in the environment... anything you want, while you stay tucked away in the shadows. I don't want to give the rest of the powers away, except to say that all of them are AWESOME.

You can also summon demonic helpers called Darklings at certain points in the game. There's four different types, each with a specialty. These creatures are sometimes necessary in order to get into some areas, and serve as excellent "bait" as you send them scouting ahead to their varied, amusing dooms. However, they're never quite as useful as they could be and they're often difficult to control.

The graphics, voice work and motion-captured character models are the real star of the game. Even random passersby in the subway stations are near photo-realistic and Jackie himself (when you get to see him) and the other main personalities in the game are stunningly brought to life. The story is simple but clever, and ultimately a little short. This game does not take long to beat, though there's a good variety of missions over the course of the story and enough side missions in the subways that by the time you reach the end, you'll feel as if you've been lots of places and done a lot of things.

My main real complaints with the game are its length, the anti-climatic ending and the scale at which Jackie's powers develop. By the end of the game, when you have all the Darkling types and all the Darkness powers, you are a powerhouse of chaos of destruction. The game doesn't spend nearly enough time at full-power, which is when it really reaches its full potential. Once you have all your powers, there's only maybe an hour or two of the game left. Also, the city is pretty small. You really only cover like one tiny ass neighborhood in New York (plus a few visits to Hell) and there is only one subway train you ever take, and you'll take it about a million times before you're finished.

To me, The Darkness screams out to be an open world, GTA-style game with crazy Satan powers. A story-heavy FPS with crazy Satan powers is a pretty good start though.

I give it 78 out of 100 chocolate-coated human hearts.