'nuff said.



As an aside, this is the most ever in a single month. Nice!

Ok, so I messed up! I uploaded the wrong sized 'bigs' on that last photo gallery, so refresh it and also enjoy part two, this time in 35mm!

Camping Part One

Camping Part Two


Now that is aside, lemme break things down a bit.

Last weekend I got me a Wii. I've played the new Zelda game enough to know it rocks in a very big way. The controls are clearly tacked on, but it doesn't matter because they work. The game is huge, fun, and well, Zelda. Wii Sports is superb, a shining example of how to use the Wiimote, and how to point out how wickedly out of shape us gamers really are. Boxing is the best, Mike Tyson Punch-Out style; simple to get into, yet difficult to master.

Well, unfortunately I didn't get to bring the Wii with me over the holidays so Thanksgiving in Dexter Mo. went by a little slower for it. The whole week was rather uneventful until I get back into town on Sunday. That's when the crap hits the fan. I won't name names or go into gritty heart-breaking details, but a friend's sister suddenly went into "unexpected" labor. That is, she literally gave birth mere hours after discovering she was preggers in the first place. Completely unbelievable I say, but there it is. Fear not, all parties involved are safe and healthy, if a little shaken and worse for the wear. All the same I still logged in 20 hours of Zelda last week. Score!

Last week blew.

I had no internet for most of the week at home, so I was a bit on the quiet side. To make up for it, I played much Gears of War with my roommate. It is awesome! I also saw the movie picture, "Borat." It was very nice! Some time this week, I plan on seeing the movie picture(s) 007 and The Pick of Destiny

Anyway, after my week on the phone with the crap-tacular Time Warner Road Runner, we all went camping! Once again we headed out to Mission Tejas State Park, where we rented out the 100 man plot. There were four of us. We (Mike and I) drank, and we ate really good Tequila Sauce stakes. They were once again super yummy.

Pictures!

Even though we were 400 miles away from home, and in the middle of the woods, we still somehow managed to be one of the few, the first, the proud, the:



That's right Japan, we finally beat you at Nintendo releases! I'll be done with Zelda when you're just opening your Wii box! Score!

So, last Tuesday, right after work, I did my civic duty and cast my vote. I did this for a few reasons, none more important than the other.

First, I did it to speak my mind without resorting to hypocrisy. That is, it's one thing to whine about the government, and it's quite another to do something about it. In America, the most fundamental thing one can do about something is to vote. It's quick, and it's easy. Just like world 1-1 in Super Mario Bros. Before you can beat the Lizard King, you have to stomp on a few shrooms.

Second, I don't agree with the GOP actions, they currently lack the voice of reason. Some of their bullet points I really dig, others like the useless No Child Left Behind act, and their little war on terror just piss me off to no end. So I voted against them across the board. Rare for a Texan.

Thirdly, as much as I dislike the GOP, I also dislike the Dems. They seem to hate me, for whatever reason. The Dems actions are a bit to socialist for me. They enjoy anti-American ideas like federal mandated minimum wages. However, there are some bullet points they have I can dig. I voted against them. Not so rare for a Texan.

Fourth, I want the government to step back, to let the people decide what is best for the people, at the local level. We don't really need the feds making all the hard choices for everyone. In fact, it'd be best if they didn't make too many choices for anyone at all. Protect us from invasion, and uphold the constitution. That's it. We'll sort out the rest.

So that's why I voted. I was one of about 28,000 in Dallas County to see things my way, and that's fine by me. Some would argue that it was a wasted vote. That not voting for a popular party is stupid, and useless. At that point I can only pity the blind. The only vote wasted is the vote not cast. If you think you're only choice is the lesser of two evils, then face it, you're still submitting to evil. There are other options. It's only a two party system because you voted for it. If that's not what you want, you must vote accordingly!

The extremist left and right are now thankfully once again at near even odds with each other. This makes the federal government almost useless, and that's the second best thing we could have right now.

Hazzah!

The Two Thousand and Six Machinima Film Festival has come and gone.

Highlights at a glance:

Two days.
museum of the Moving Image.
Panels and screenings from 11-6.
Many members of the Machinima community in attendance.
The beepa blokes, creators of FRAPS, were in attendance.
Many members of the press community in attendance.
Blizzard and Bioware employees in attendance.
gamevideos.com, Linden Lab, and Reallusion had booths with free swag.
Machinima Live Jam, where I was a contestant. I so won that thing!
Award Ceremony: The French team KBS Productions swept with four Mackies!
No big upsets, every winner truly earned it.
The whole thing was live in Second Life!
After party BoF: we took over two establishments, one for food, the other for drinks!

Hands down the best Machinima Film Festival ever. It'll be super tough to beat this one, but I'm willing to wager we'll do just that next year!

Extra props to Frank and Paul for heading up the festivities once again, shouts to the cute girl (call me!), cheers to all the winners, and more importantly, thanks to everyone who submitted a film for consideration! Without all those films to judge from, we'd have no cool festival to pat our own backs with. The list of names to thank goes on forever, so thanks to everyone for a good time in NYC!

But mostly Barry. You rock.