Matrix Fallout

11.06.2003

[unrelated rant]

Usually my morning commute takes about 25 minutes (20 if traffic isn't too thick, 15 if the lights and traffic cooperates). I can usually tell which of those time frames I'm going to fall into by where the traffic starts backing up. This morning, the traffic started backing up way to early. I had already been waiting 15 minutes by the time I got to the earliest point where it usually starts to back up. Evidently the rain, wet streets, and morning fog hadn't agreed with somebody. Doing some quick calculations and seeing that at my current speed it would take.. lets see, carry the one, divide by zero.... forever to get to work, I tried an on the fly, alternate route.

And it was an alternate route that led me to the 2nd busiest intersection in Madison, which was now the home of a big old wreck. Definitely not a morning for me to be in a hurry.

But I finally got to work. 6 minutes shy of an hour after leaving home. More than double my usual time. If I wanted to live somewhere where it took forever to get from point A to pont B, I'd go to Atlanta (ugh, cold shiver down my spine). There's got to be a way for a wreck to not tie up traffic (like the "move damaged vehicles to shoulder" signs that nobody pays attention to) and just keep going and quit rubbernecking so you don't run into the person in front of you.

But this is one of those things that will never change.

[/end of unrelated rant]

After seeing Revolutions yesterday, I don't know how much I liked it and how much I was dissapointed by the ending. As expected, critics dislike it (watch out for spoilers here). Even the common folk seem a little let down by everything that was seemingly left out.

It was a good sci-fi movie. It had good sci-fi action. Yet for a Matrix movie, especially the finale of the series, it was lacking. And the thing it was lacking most was some good, quality Matrix time. It needed more bullet time slow motion shots firing spinning cartwheels of death. In fact, my favorite Matrix moment was a chase scene in the subway station, seeing how each character jumped the stall differently. Trinity had a great cartwheel/somersault past the gate that was perfect and fluid.

So, I want to like it. I do like it, just not as much as I want to, but I don't want to admit it. Yet I'll still go around spouting "Mister Anderson" and "It is an in-ev-it-a-bil-ity".

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Entering The Matrix Again

11.05.2003

If all goes well, we're taking a work break today and going to see the new Matrix movie. I'm sure we'll be thinking about how to incorporate what we see in the movie into things we're working on, that way it's still work related as opposed tosneaking off and watching a movie.

To get in the mood for the movie, and as part of setting up the new computer, I found that there is a cornucopia of Matrix Screensavers out there. My personal favorite is the 3-D Screensaver that has you zooming around glyphs as seen in the opening of Reloaded. It's quite mesmerizing.

And I remember back when aquarium screensavers were all the rage.

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More Smackdown and Some Catching Up

11.04.2003

The webserver was down for a good chunk of yesterday, so I had a good excuse to put off posting anything.

After sneaking in a weekend of playing more of Smackdown, I've found that most of the story lines revolve around the world chamionship. I'm in the 2nd season of play and have seen 2 spots so far where the story line could start repeating if I had made the same decision as before (such as forming a faction). Not that uncommon from the other games, but it would be nice to see the stories spread around a little. I'm about to have to try and lose the belts I've accumulated (last night I went from being the US/World/World Tag Team champion to just the lowly Tag Team champion) so I can switch shows and see if the Raw storylines are any different. I don't think they are, but it's one of those things I've got to check.

Work has also been keeping me busy. For the first time in almost 2 years, I now have a work-provided computer (mainly because installing the upgrade version of XP doesn't quite get everything to working - like printers!). I've spent the last couple of days copying apps from the old computer to the new one. It's amazing what all you come to use after years of programming. Even more odd is transferring everything over and then saying "ok, what did I forget?" With any luck, anything I've forgotten can be easily downloaded.

But even downloading and getting everything installed isn't the end of it. I've been a little shocked at how many things I customize. Paint Shop Pro - one of those programs I've been using for almost as long as I remember, has tons of customizations.Tweaked toolbars, custom imported brushes and tubes (which I just remembered are still on the other computer!). Even after loading it, I've still go tto go through and set it up like I remember it, or else I'll be fighting and cursing it each time I use it.

The new computer better kick some ass to be putting me through all of this!

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NWA-TNA Video Game?

10.31.2003

Last night I ended up taking a break from playing Smackdown and settled in for some couch potato, tv watching fun. Yes, I know, I know. I'm shocked about it all too.

I get a lot of search engine hits from people looking for NWA-TNA info. Kind of fitting in for this weeks theme of me spending way too much time playing games, Jarretts group says that there is no wrestling game from EA on the way. Of course, there's plenty of other companies that could provide a wrestling game for them.

Makes me wish my wrestling game (now finishing up its second year of pre-development requirements) was ready.

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Smackdown 5 - Day Two

10.30.2003

I managed to get more sleep yesterday. I limited myself to only playing Smackdown until 9:45 last night (even though I started trying to put the controller down around 8:00). Even on the easy setting, I still manage to get my butt whooped every once in a while, but that's part of why I like the game. The easy mode is good for learning, but it's not so easy that you can always breeze through everything. Of course,the way the career mode lets you build up states, I'm guessing that breezing through the easy mode is an eventuality.

Another day of playing has shown me more things that I like about the game. All the message boards I read before the release of the game were excited because it was going to feature the Elimination Chamber. I got to play in the elimination chamber last night, and I've got to admit it was pretty cool. The story mode intrigues me more and more. The role playing aspect (such as remembering you're a heel) is done really well, although sometimes I'm not sure what to do. For example, I had been feuding with the Undertaker, and had gotten extra experience for creating a "strong rivalry" with him, but at one point he offers to teach me some moves. If I turn him down (as I did the first time) he insults me and walks off. The option came up again later, so I accepted his offer and managed to gain some experience.

I snuck in a home-made story line last night, too. Right when my rivalry with Undertaker started, I had just won the US title, and Undertaker won itfrom me in a 4-way match. I was able to demand a US title match from the GM, mainly because it was the only title for which I was eligible. It may be a stipulation of demanding a match, but Taker showed up with 2 Smackdown icons already charged up, meaning he could apply 2 of his finishing moves at the beginning of the match instead of working his way up. Well, those finishers were put to hasty use and made short work out of me. For the next match, I again asked for a title shot, and it was given to me! Trying a new tactic, I grabbed a chair and started whacking away at Taker, which was working real well until he stole the chair and started whacking back, so I ended up losing that match too. But I was able to again ask for a titleshot, so for the 3rd time I tried a different strategy - lots of clotheslines followed by lots of top rope frog splashes. This eventually got me the win (and my second US title reign!).

The following match was a PPV, 4-way TLC match.Taker won.

After getting involved in the Royal Rumble story line (in which I was eliminated by the freakin' Hurricane!), I managed to recapture the US title (for my glorious 3rd title reign!). After that, I was getting ready to put everything away for the night, but I managed to have a match with Kurt Angle, and nothing makes me smile more than just whacking Kurt with a chair (after all, that's what camtoons are all about.

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