Offbeat Geek

On my return journey from the Cardinals game Sunday night I experienced a toothache unlike any other I’ve ever had the displeasure of enduring.  Dealing with that pain and trying to continue the two hour drive was a genuine trial.  Naturally, the next morning I book an emergency appointment after not having been able to sleep most of Sunday night.  A couple of x-rays later reveal that my bottom right wisdom tooth decided to grow diagonally and over the course of the last year and a bit slowly erode the tooth in front of it.  The inevitable appointment to remove the culprit was arranged for tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  In the mean time I was given a prescription of Tylenol 3 and Penicillin to manage the pain. The rest of Monday continued with  varying degrees of pain.  This morning I awoke to even worse pain.  Despite maxing out all my doses of medication over the course of the day nothing has eased the headaches/nausea and pain. My face is starting to look a little the Michelin man!  What scares me is the fact that tomorrow, once the tooth has been removed and the cavity filled, the pain is meant to be worse!  It has to be said that I’ve a very low pain tolerance but I am genuinely freaking out about the next couple of days!

A nice post about bloggers being movie critics.  There seems to be a bit of chatter about it at the moment.  Personally I would like to know what exactly makes a person a critic.  Is there any quantifiable definition for being a professional critic?  Anyone who offers their opinion on something is being critical on the topic.  Shouldn’t a person who is able to critique the merits and faults of something eloquently and accurately be labeled a critic?  As it stands critics are known for they’re general dislike of something.  It seems the more you slate a movie as a critic the more “critically-acclaimed” you are.  I believe this is what led us to present problem.  Bloggers who are authorities in their respective fields are often more knowledgeable primarily from experience so their reviews are getting more weight.  Maybe its time for a new breed of critic to match today’s new media.

Guinness celebrating 250 years.

Guinness, that famous Irish stout, is celebrating it’s 250th anniversary today.  The worldwide celebrations began at 17:59 Irish local time.  That may seem like a strange time to start celebrations but, as we know, 1759 was the year in which Arthur Guinness invented the brew in Lexlip, County Kildare.  While celebrations began in Ireland at 09:59 this morning it would be a little early to share in the celebrations here in Tucson.  So at 17:59 today raise a glass and make a toast to Arthur Guinness.

The Wheelman

I know this game has been out a while now but seeing as it is the first game that I had the pleasure of being a part of I just had to mention it!  I worked on 2 of the six “Balance of Power” missions.  Working in the industry was an experience, one I wish to repeat again soon.  I had the distinct pleasure with some very talented individuals.  I’ll be adding a catalog of the games I’m credited on which I hope will grow to be a nice, long, and hopefully good, list.  In the mean time check out “The Wheelman“, available on PC, PS3, and XBOX360.

A good mate of mine arrived to Tucson this evening.  I will be playing host for the next week and a bit to Landa2.  Here’s hoping he finds this neck of the woods interesting!  Thinking the Titan Missile Silo, Desert Museum, Old Tucson or Biosphere 2 might be on the cards.  Now that I think about it, there’s actually quite a bit to do here in Tucson.

My new HOLP map in the works

I’ve been busy at work on my thank you deathmatch level for Unreal Tournament 3.  The map, “DM-HOLP-Takk”, is set inside a prison and gets it’s name from the Norwegian word for thank you.  Release is around the corner.  This map will honour the kind folk who helped keep the original HOLP website alive after it took a 200GB overflow in bandwidth.  Each of those kind folk will feature in the map environment.  There is nearly more work outside the playable area than there is in it.  I’m excited about how this one will turn out.  All going well it will see both a PC and PS3 release. More to come later!

A new and improved kfma.com?

The new rock radio station KFMA’s website has served them well but is really showing it’s age.  For a popular site I feel that the design is in dire need of a revamp.  So to get my web design skills back in action I decided to use KFMA.com as a crash test dummy.  What you see before you is a sample of what I’ve got so far.  The aim is to make the site as transparent as possible for the people who frequent the site.  A larger version of the image can be found here.  I will be putting this into my design portfolio once it’s finished.

DJ Champion - Resistance

I recently discovered an artist called DJ Champion from a video preview of the Borderlands game coming out next month.  The song, “No Heaven”, caught my attention and I promptly set about searching out more music by this artist.  As it turned out the song was on an album from about 4 years ago and I feared that the DJ may have stopped making music.  Fortunately this was not the case!  His new album, “Resistance”, came out on September 15th.  Funnily enough the same date as another album titled “The Resistance” by a more well known band, Muse (More on them later when I decide what to make of that album).  “Resistance” has an interesting mix of electronic tracks.  Personal favourites include “Sannois Beach”, “Alive Again” and title track “Resistance (Skool)” which reminds me of “Good Luck” by Basement Jaxx.

Track listing of  Resistance

1. Clear Beach
2. Resistance (Skool)
3. Perfect In Between
4. Plastiques at métaux
5. So Big
6. Backing Off
7. L6 (The Blooded)
8. My Black Saab
9. Sannois Beach
10. Alive Again
11. The Monster

“Resistance” clocks in just past 50 minutes and can be purchased from all the usual venues.  If electronic is your thing I recommend it otherwise I’d give the songs a preview before you part with your cash.  I purchased it directly for C$9.99.  There are several other options which include t-shirt and/or vinyl if you are so inclined.

A new House?

Last night saw the beginning of September’s big television week.  Included amongst other premiers were: Castle, Heroes and House. While the Heroes two hour season 4 opener was a return to seasons 1 and 2 form it still was still overshadowed by the other two shows.

Castle returned as strong as season one’s finale. The over arching story involving Beckett’s mother still looms and adds a nice option to keep the series interesting when needed, much like Red John in the Mentalist.

Despite Castle’s success the night was stolen by the season 6 two hour premier of House MD.  This episode finally broke the usual routine and is easily one of the strongest episodes in the show’s run so far.  In following with the current trend of “rebooting” in the Film Industry, the premier successfully reinvented Greg House.  They’ve managed to give the character a bit more depth and hopefully will continue to develop the character over the course of season 6.  Time will tell.

Suffice to say that this  is just the first of several shows premiering this week. So who knows, maybe there will be something actually worth watching this Autumn!

I decided to keep the default first post’s title as it is appropriate for a geek’s first post!  After years of being on the internet I decided to go ahead and add my ramblings to the digital world.  As a professional “Geek” (level designer, web designer, and programmer) I’ll be adding my two cents to all things gaming and web.  Over the course of 2010 I’ll be looking to achieve a childhood dream: become a professional gamer.  This blog will serve, amongst other things, as the story of that journey.  Other things that I’ll be mentioning include movies, television, and the odd personal peeve.  So without further ado I welcome you to offbeatgeek.com!