Anybody that knows me well could tell you that I have a number of unhealthy obsessions. One of these is certainly shared with fellow Tiny God Chuck (I also recently got back into WoW.) Many of the things that I obsess over are movie or TV related. Sometimes I go crazy about certain words or phrases and overuse them until all of my friends are ready to strangle me. Of all my weird quirks, there is one for which I am made fun of the most: Sean Bean. (more…)

To slip or fall back into a former worse state.

I would like to announce that I have returned to the world of Azeroth. Again.

I’m sure all the faithful Tiny Gods visitors know that I sold off my first WoW account in the beginning of July. What most of you do not know is that a short while after selling that account, I reactivated my second account. Over the course of the next few weeks, I leveled a character to 60 on a brand new server. I then promptly deleted said character, and cancelled the account. But that was not to be the end of my WoW career… (more…)

That, my friends, is the question. Well, not really, becuase this post isn’t so much about buying a Wii, it is more about how Nintendo has managed to infuriate me.

As I hope you are all aware, this past thursday, Nintendo finally came clean with the launch details regarding their new system. The date to mark on your calendar is November 19th, at a cost of $250. Much discussion has followed amongst my coworkers and I, regarding Nintendo’s nefarious scheme to bundle Wii Sports with the system, among other things. What, you might ask, is so nefarious about giving consumers a free game with the system? The game is not free, not by a longshot.

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So, we were having a discussion at work about how it would be nice to find some games that you can play by email, which i think could be pretty awesome. Since all of us have our own schedules, its not very feasible to get some good ol gaming going on between the lot of us. I know i miss the quake 2 matches, hotseat games of homm2, GTA multiplayer, postal, warcraft 2/3, etc etc of years past. Of course, none of these games would work via play by email, but there are a small handful of games that do. (more…)

I just took another look in the mirror.  I’ve been “not shaving” for a couple of weeks now, I should think.  Having experienced the cold winds blowing rain about this afternoon I am now ready to commit to growing a new beard.

It’ll be more lustrous and heartier than ever before!  If anyone wants to join me for a rousing bout of beard growing just let me know.  Things go better when you’ve got a partner in crime, and I fully intend to grow a beard that is a crime against humanity.

I’m also dedicating my beard; I shall christen it the Steve Irwin Memorial Beard and Moustache.

I think we can all agree in general terms that the “home phone” is declining.  Cellphones are encroaching on their territory, but for a lot of households they make sense.  Cordless and wallphones simply lack the versatility and necessity of their mobile counterparts.

Some inroads have been made into getting VoIP into homes over home phones, but I’ll suffice it to say that there is a lot of progress to go on that thoroughly unperfected idea.  What we need is convenience, versatility and reliability, two of which any VoIP homephone currently lacks.

Conversely, a device that many people own but don’t use often enough is a high quality digital video/still camera.  Current generations of that technology can deliver great movies and pictures, but they just aren’t as accessible and easy to keep around as they need to be.  High megapixel cameras are finding their way into cellphones and we can expect to see 4MPixel cameras in phones become the norm before too damned long.  But there’s still some robustness that a dedicated digital video camera has that multifunction devices will always lack.

I think I’d be interested in a digital video camera (DVD or harddrive based, I could go either way) that was always out and about, ready to be used.  If you build a cordless phone with basic features into a Handycam I think you’d have a hit on your hands, given the proper marketing.  Imagine a high quality video camera sitting right where it’s most convenient, ready to go at a moments notice, that can be connected to your TV and played back by popping the DVD out and then into your PS2.

It’s the perfect multifunction device to complement your cellphone: a small phone that can take pictures vs a big video camera that can take calls.  It’s brilliant, and I’m not just saying that because I thought of it.

Andrew “Don’t Call Me Andy” W. K. has released his third album in Japan and Korea.  According to this article it will drop world-wide eventually, but after his 4th album, before his fifth.  These three new albums should be wrapped up in 2006 and released soon after.  So there are 2 albums to look forward to and 2 in the past, but how is the present disc?
Delightful.

AWK is still the same guy with the same party hard, “live life” attitude and the hard rocking, repetetitious lyrics, but now he’s been joined by a band in-studio.  With more contributors you get a wilder sound: more excessive guitar solos (Not Going to Bed, When I’m High, I Want to See You Get Wild), stranger instrumentation (xylophones and horns, in light doses), and lots more rensponsory chants in the lyrics.

This CD plays like a live concert: it opens with an ode to the audience, then breaks into some hard rock after a brief suspense-building period.  It rocks progressively harder until the end, punctuated by a few intermission (read: throwaway) tracks.   From “Into the Clear” to the end you can’t possibly stop rocking hard; it’s just that awesome.  Mr. W. K. makes numerous references to taking journeys and voyages, and climbing mountains and flying.  You can’t help but get pulled along, banging your head and pumping your fists along the way.  It’s definitely a musical voyage worth taking.

This is Andrew’s most varied and interesting work to date, but it still retains those qualities that make AWK who he is.  If you liked I Get Wet and/or The Wolf then you’re sure to enjoy this one as well.

Some stand out songs to get your blood pumping are ”Not Going To Bed”, ”I Want To See You Go Wild” and “Las Vegas, Nevada.”
Some classically uplifting gems on this disc are “I Came For You”, “Remember Tonight”, and “The Moving Room.”

I give Andrew W. K.’s Close Calls With Brick Walls the highly respectable score of seven and a half 100%’s out of ten.
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