More Machine!

Horrific End, or Funny Beginning?

Instead of going on some vindictive rant about how soft Lamar Odom is, I’m going to end this basketball season on a positive note.  We made it to the finals, and if you can take anything away from this season, you have to admit that even though we lost in the finals, all is good in Lakerland because we now have “Machine!”

Also, look out for the cameo by “Rental Man” towards the end!  You rock Rental Man!

Lakers in the Finals - Oh Yeah Baby!

Is it a sign of a problem when I cancel a much needed ankle operation because it happens to fall on the day of the first home game of the Lakers/Celtics NBA finals?  After 3 painful years, both on the Lakers front and with my ankle,  I was forced to choose between basketball and my health, and I choose basketball!

There’s no way in hell that I’m missing the revival of the greatest rivalry in sports.  This finals series is the entire reason I own season tickets, and to miss it for a silly ankle surgery?   Pfffft…..

Its a good thing a pilot came through for me to work on, or else I would have a hard time explaining to my doctor why I needed to reschedule.  “Hi….I, uhhh, need to reschedule my surgery that’s been on the books for two months now because…ummmmm, I have Lakers tickets?”.  That would go over well.

Thank you writer’s strike for making it possible for a pilot to be delivered in June so that I have a real reason to postpone! Go Lakers!

Lakers Uncut Is Live!

I finally got my Lakers podcast launched! It took longer than I had hoped, but I posted the first show on Friday over at:

Lakers Uncut

The site is now live, and if everything works out as planned, I’ll have a new show up every week! I’m more excited about this than I’ve been for anything in a long time. Its been a challenge getting it off the ground, but I’m pretty happy with the first show and have plans on how to make it better from one show to the next so we’ll see what happens. Check it out!

The Zero Punctuation Crew Strikes Again!

Neglected

A couple months goes by quicker then ever these days.  I’ve completely neglected the blog in recent weeks, having been working like mad on a couple recent projects not named Cory In The House (another writer’s strike casualty!).  My Lakers podcast is about ready to launch, and I’ve been hustling like crazy to get my production music library put to use in the upcoming onslaught of reality shows.  The last couple of weeks my companies’ music has been used in Billy Ray Cyrus: Home At Last, and CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, so while the strike has had brutal effects on one aspect of my company, things have actually been busier than ever.

I’ve got a redesign in the works for the blog, as I’ve noticed it doesn’t format properly on older windows computers….I’ve also been going over in my mind what I this space to be used for.  I’ve got some plans to start doing some intensive video game/movie reviews, but I don’t know if that’s something I want to do here or on a new blog.  Its hard to say at this point, but I’ve got the holidays to figure it out I guess.

In the meantime, I’m hoping to be a little more active on the blogging front.

The Escapist: Zero Punctuation Halo 3 Review (Hell yeah!)

This is the funniest Halo 3 review I’ve heard to date:

The Escapist: Zero Punctuation

Gorilla With Mad Drum Skills

Halo 3 Launch Madness

I braved the masses last night and went to the Game Stop in Hawthorne to pick up my pre-ordered copy of Halo 3. I was debating whether or not to go. I really don’t like lines, in fact I despise them. I thought about just picking it up this morning, but at around 11:30 last night I realized that I was too excited for its release and probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways.

When I got to Game Stop, the line was about 150 people deep but I couldn’t turn back once I was there. I was fully expecting the line to be filled with only a bunch of punk teenage kids, but it ended up being the exact opposite, with people across all demographics there. In my spot in line I was next to a dad buying the game for his teenage kids, a 20 something guy named Mark who had just served duty in Afghanistan, me (the kid stuck in a 30 something body), and a teenager I’m guessing was around 15. The line lasted about an hour, and it went by quick as hell because of the good vibes

I was pumped when I got home (about 1am), popped the game in, and much to my dismay ended up grappling with my internet connection for 45 minutes after about only 5 minutes of game play. I gave up at one point, played some single player, and when the internet came back up I jumped into a ranked match. I got my first achievement (the beatdown achievement), and then my internet connection went down again. By about 2:30 I gave in to the internet gods and packed it in.

My first impressions of the game from what little I got to play of it is that its phenomenal. The campaign portion I played was great, as I was not expecting the jungle vibe right out of the gates. The multi-player doesn’t feel that different from Halo 2, but visually it looks SO MUCH BETTER. I tried a couple of the new weapons and I can’t wait to get in on some more matches tonight.

Here’s some pictures from the launch last night:

Surf Session At El Porto

I had a pretty fun surf session this morning at El Porto. The surf was really small, but it was a beautiful morning. Between the crappy conditions this summer and my crazy schedule I haven’t really been able to get out that much so it felt awesome just to be in the water paddling around.

The water was just at the limits of being able to trunk it, so I didn’t rock the wetsuit today. I got an Al Merrick quad-fin fish from Channel Islands in Santa Barbara back in about July, and I absolutely LOVE this board. Today’s conditions were perfect for this board.

There were dolphins surfing with us today (it happens a lot at El Porto). Even when the surf is small, seeing dolphins in the water right next to you is the coolest thing. Watching dolphins and bird surf has got to be one of the greatest things to witness.