The Star Trek Pizza Cutter

The ubergeek Pizza cutter!

BEAM ME UP ONE OF THOSE!

Hmm... why wasn't this thought of before?

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My first 0 out of 10 based on FRUSTRATION

"Whu?"

Now I do not consider myself to be any sort of professional reviewer in any way. I'm just a guy who wastes time on his breaks writing about what he does in life which happens to include gaming. There are many out there who do this in a more professional sense, even make a living from it. I am, however, part of the core audience that game developers target when the build a game that isn't Mario. I buy games, I play games, I fill their pockets with lots of dollars and do so
willingly and wantingly. So, when I feel it absolutely necessary to truly lay hate on a game, someone out there should listen. I know games, I know good and bad, I just can't put it into words well enough to make it worthwhile doing for a living.

The game in question is Bioshock 2.

"Let's fuck with him a little more daddy!"

I picked up this title a week or so ago when it went on special at Wal Mart for 19 dollars. Not a bad deal at all for what should have been a "AAA" title. I had the title back in the spring but never got into it so I traded it, and regretted until I picked it up recently. The original game, Bioshock, was a game that had me doing something I generally don't do, playing a first person shooter. It had a fantastic premise, incredible atmosphere, and all around high production values. Bioshock 2 was a true extension of that. The game engine was left mostly untouched, there were just a few tweaks on gameplay in general. The game itself, for the most part, is a better game with a touch of "been there, done that".

So, there is multiplayer added to this one, something that you truly do not need to play to get some enjoyment out of the game. If you were to play the single player levels through, you are looking at about 10 to 12 hours, should you try and be a completionist. Here's the catch though. For all the joy and wonderment you may get from romping around the dead world of Rapture, it all goes to waste because of one STUPID glitch.


SPOILER ALERT

In the last level, that being level 9, 12ish hours past where you start, you enter a holding cell area. In said area, you are asked to look through each cell for a passcode to get you into the office where the big baddie for the level is held up. As you enter cell #2, the door closes behind you, leaving you in darkness. You turn around, as you hear the door slam, and that's it. You are left in darkness, not story based, just a glitch that prevents you FROM EVER FINISHING THE GAME should you not have a save file to go back to (which, sadly, I do not). I shot enough hot plasmid fire, lightning, hot bullets and rockets at the door to start a tectonic plate shift and the door simply would not open.

For a game with such a high profile to be so broken is unforgivable. I researched this problem on the net and many other folks have run into the same problem, with no solution save for reloading. I went to the tech forums for the game and no solution was easily found. (I didn't want to waste more than an hour or two looking). If anyone out there in game land were aware of a solution for this issue, PLEASE pass it along as apparently, I'm right near the end of the game!!!! If there is no solution, then this game gets my very first....


ZERO OUT OF TEN.

I cannot recommend a game in the least if it really is this broken. If it CAN be fixed, it gets 8 out of 10.


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Ha! Thank you facebook.

Steph, I know you'll read this sometime this week, I haven't forgotten. :P But facebook has made sure I won't forget. :D

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Friday Cat Funnies

This Kitty loves it's food, yum yum!

In the fine art of being awesome...

Ninja Breadmen Cutters!



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Another fun radio Station... 90's rock

This is what many of us grew up with listening to, when we were able to appreciate music a little more that is.



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Newfoundland Weather Bomb... the Igor. As well, other stuff.

If you live in Newfoundland all you've heard about over the past 2 days is "Hurricane Igor". Now, truth be told, this is a major happening for us here on the rock simply because hurricanes typically do not make it to Newfoundland. With a combination of them typically starting so far south and our "blessing-curse" in the Labrador Current, really bad weather doesn't really make it here. So, for some reason, Igor managed to pull it off and lay waste to the province. Lots of trees blown down, siding ripped off of houses, garbage cans thrown for a loop, ya know. (Thank GOD I didn't live in one of the trailer parks... that combined with my luck would have been a sure fire recipe for a twister!!!)

One thing that amazed me was the sheer volume of people outside, running around in a hurricane WITH CAMERAS! The thought crossed my mind, until I saw so many other people doing it, I felt I wouldn't get any real genuinely good photos. The storm couldn't have been THAT BAD I guess. :P

Now, knock on wood, nothing of major consequence happened for me. THANK YOU JESUS! No leaks, cracks, drips, squeeks, or power outages. I even got off work early. Best of luck to those not so lucky, hopefully things will work themselves out.


When I got home early this week, I put in my copy of Bioshock 2. With the little drop of "hon, all the games you play look the same" put in my head from my wife, I decided to step away from 3D action and tried out some first person shooter with a twist. Now typically, I HATE 1st person games, as they all really do feel the same to me. I played the first Bioshock and strangely enjoyed it, with the twist being the biotic powers derived from plasmids you inject during the game. You can then, say, use your electrical powers to charge water that the baddies are rushing though, killing them. Use your environment, use your gun, not bad. The atmosphere of the game is a real seller, with you running around a failed undersea Utopia, with all the other folks who have shot up too many plasmids and gone crazy. Bioshock 2 is really just an extension of the first game, with little changed. Still a decent gaming experience though.

>>Side note: I have just heard Copperhead Road on K-rock for what feels like they millionth time in the past two weeks. I wish I could change the channel but it's the only station outside of VOCM and VOWR that we can get here at work!!!<<


I finished off the latest Mass Effect 2 download as well, Lair of the Shadow Broker. It was a very interesting piece of gaming, with the outcome of the DLC actually affecting the story of Mass Effect 3 when it comes out. Very intriguing. It was a typical run through of lots of guys with guns and Biotic Powers, like most of the rest of the game, but it's such a GOOD GAME... as noted by IGN when they placed it on the #1 game on XBox 360 pedestal. The depth and scope of storytelling in this title is unparalleled by any game I've ever played, not even Final Fantasy was able to give me such a feeling of immersion. Amazing.

I've started planning for the CAPA Photo submissions for the fall. The first contest, entitled Well Aged, is going to be a tough one. I have a few ideas, but getting the photos will be tough, given the subjects I have in mind. I'll let you know how it goes. :) Hopefully my photos will be chosen to go this year.

Ok, back to work. See you next time!

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One last lolcat for the day...

Star Wars fans...



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Awesome Goalie Masks

Here are some AWESOME goalie masks. Note: Clint Eastwood mask for some dood named Gunnerson is my fave.







May be hard to see, but this is a Final Fantasy themed mask for Kari Lehtonen.



Kari Lehtonen loves his theme masks... here is the Joker.




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Awww moment of the Kittie day...

80's Hairband joy!

Gotta love the hairband. Want a guilty pleasure? Take a listen...

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FRiDaY CaT FuNNieS!

My promised cat funnies! More to come today.

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Today on CD Lifestuff, we get CD GAMING! :D

Well, I promised a couple of reviews recently so here we go.

Let's start with Two Worlds.



Two Worlds is an open world, action RPG that is heralded as one of the worst games ever released for Xbox 360. Well. Let me tell ya, while it is no gem, it is certainly worth the few schillings it is going for these days.

The graphics from a distance look good, a sort of "drunk pretty" appeal with great environments after all the pop in grass and plants and trees come in. The faces and overall character models are like the environments. They look good from a distance, as up close they look rubbery, and truthfully, last generation. The musical score is great, but the sound effects are weak and a little overdone.

The story is interesting enough. You are part of a family who hid an ancient evil artifact in pieces all over the world. Some evil sorts with hockeymask like faces kidnap your sister and make you go fetch all of the pieces so they can bring some evil god like thing back to the world. They don't do it themselves because only your bloodline can handle the pieces of the artifact. That and because there needs to be SOME REASON why you are running around this big open world, so it services that need nicely.

The game will draw many comparisons to Oblivion and Divinity 2.For some reason, Oblivion is heralded as the be all end all to Open world fantasy RPG's. Personally, I think this is quite unfair. Oblivion suffers from many of the issues, plus a whole bunch more critical flaws, that this title has to deal with. Bad clipping, mucky combat, and some wonky graphical issues in general. All open world games like this, save for Fallout 3 I find, have many technical issues and I wonder if it's just something we'll all have to deal with until the next generation of more powerful gaming machines comes along. In two worlds, there is some graphical stuttering and framerate drops, lots of pop in, and some strange draw in distances for various things. Truth be told, once you get past the initial shock of "ick" you'll feel from this, it's really not that bad and quite livable. The world, when experienced, is quite vibrant and interesting, filled with all sorts of interesting badguys and wildlife. The demons look demonie and the animals look sufficiently furry, and they all can die at the tip of your blade or arrow. The armor you and other denizens wear looks fantastic and suitably worthwhile to find.

One of the absolutely great ideas in this game is the ability to combine like objects to create a more powerful object. For instance, got two sets of hauback armor and no space left in your inventory? Combine them for a more powerful set of armor and pick up that alchemy object. You can do this RIGHT FROM THE START OF THE GAME, which is awesome. There are plenty of skills and jobs within the game which you can do pretty much right off of the bat without having to trudge through 15 levels of experience like most other games. You can build bombs, apply weapon and armor augmentations, and brew strange potions right from the getgo and they are all worthwhile doing.

The horseriding can be a bit of a chore, as the instruction for doing so is weak and the controls are difficult. To go forward, don't put forward and continue to hold forward as you would in any other game, just tap forward once and the horse takes it from there. Luckily, the game developers had some foresight and placed magical teleporters all over the world. With these, much of the open world running around is skipped and you don't really need to ride a horse save for getting the 5 point achievement.

Overall, the game is worth a look for adventure fans. There are some frustrating moments, but to be honest with you, many other games in this style have the same issues and they are lauded as revolutionary and must plays. While this certainly isn't revolutionary, it's still a decent game and should be checked out. With it typically retailing for $10 or less, it almost makes it a must buy.

7.5 out of 10

------------------------------


I was really disappointed with Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions. It came out Tuesday past and I really feel gipped by it. While many reviewers were excited for it because they were trying to make a far better attempt at a Spider-man title than in years past, when I picked it up and started to play it a little, it felt like more of the same. There are 4 different worlds, Amazing (standard Spidey), Noir (stealth world war spidey), 2099 (future spidey) and Ultimate (kid spidey with the venom suit). Amazing and Ultimate really feel like playing the truely DREADFUL Spider-man: Friend or Foe, especially Amazing. The graphics are different for each world, Amazing being cel shaded, Ultimate being similar, Noir looked great and monotone, and 2099 being very slick and shiny.

I'm about halfway through, and so far outside of the Noir world, it's the same beat-em-up you would expect a linear Spider-man title to be. Noir is all about takedowns, similar to the stalker mode of Batman, Arkham Asylum. I loved that stuff. Everything else is just blah. It could be any character, any game, similar in feel to that of Streets of Rage from the old Sega Genesis days. I would recommend renting it before anything else. Don't buy it unless you are a Spidey enthusiast. I'll give a full review when I'm finished it.

That's it for today!

C

The Best Job Ad Ever

In Searching for a new job for someone this weekend, my wife came across this gem of a job ad. I almost want to apply to it. :D Don't believe it's real? Check out the link. Jobs in NL.com. Great site.

PRINCE EDWARD AIR
Office Assistant
Job Location
St. John's

Job Number
MB1009080883

Posted Date
2010-09-08

Posting End Date
2010-09-15

Start Date for job
2010-09-22

Wage / Salary
$12 to $12 Hourly

Job Type
Permanent

Number of Opportunities
1

The job is full-time
35 hours per week
Organization Name
Cargojet Regional
Address
P. O. Box 29016

St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador
A1A 5B5 Canada
Contact Name
Cauline Pike
Job Description

This is a full-time, permanent position available to individuals eligible for the Graduate Student program.

In this busy environment you will be required to diplomatically and clearly answer telephones, handle inquiries and forward messages. The majority of your time will be spent on data-entry, but you will enjoy a myriad of tasks that include, but will not be limited to filing, photocopying, creating correspondence, and checking the mail. You will be expected to take initiative, be independent, request assistance whenever necessary, and show up for work.

You will be required to work in a professional manner. You will know how to use 'spell check' and/or a dictionary. You will know the difference between 'Board' and 'bored', or 'there' and 'their', 'cent' and 'sent' or - well, if you don't, you will ask before you forward any such correspondence. You will not submit or offer sub-standard work and hope that nobody wil notice.

You will not keep your cell phone next to your keyboard whereupon you may send text messages to boy/girlfriends, parents, siblings, friends, ex-friends and ex-boy/girlfriends on a continuous basis. You will not pout if you are told to turn the cellphone off.

You will not spend six hours a day 'creeping' your friends on Facebook, nor will you make numerous phone calls to your boy/girlfriends, parents, siblings, friends, ex-friends and ex-boy/girlfriends - unless a true emergency is upon you.

You will not expect any co-worker to cater to you in the event of a headache, tummy ache or toothache. You will not bring a heating pad to the office in case your belly hurts. You will stay home if you're sick, and come to work if you're not.

And you will enjoy working in a small, casual office, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday thru Friday, where we understand the value of integrity, diligence and hard work.

Please apply if you are looking for and would like to spend some time in a stress-free entry-level position - notwithstanding the above limitations, of course.


http://www.jobsinnl.ca/search/en/-1/-1/62/-1/0/-1/0/-1/-1/0/3/MB1009080883


AWESOME.

:D

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For being lax on the "Friday Funny Cats"

What has been seen...

Cannot be unseen.




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Designer Light Bulbs

The Plumen: Designer Lightbulb

An interesting concept. Sadly, innovation comes at a price. £20 to be exact... just over $31 Canadian. If Only innovation could be competitively priced, hey?
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BTW: Many of my fun links come from Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Follow him on Twitter.

No Heroes Closure Movie... Boo.

Link

Sorry, Heroes fans. There will be no wrap up movie as hoped. There has been some mention to a book or comic, but no tv movie. Ah well. :(

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Defending Greg Wyshynski

Now, for all the fun I have here blogging, I do not have any illusions of grandeur in the thoughts that maybe I'm a journalist. I'm VERY FAR FROM IT. I'm a blogger, an inconsistent, difficult to follow sort of man who verbally vomits thoughts about photography, sports, and video games when his schedule and mindset permits. I like to emulate some of the wittiness displayed by a certain sports journalist, Greg Wyshynski, of Yahoo Sports. I'm not sure that he is an official journalist, but he does blog about Hockey. A lot. He also shares his opinions on everything from hockey to movies to video games. If you are a twitter user, some of the stuff that pops out of his feed is absolutely priceless. You never know what is going to come next.

Granted, for some things, I wrinkle my brow and wonder what special stuff he's been smoking today, but that is the plight of an opinionated person sharing his thoughts with the world.

This past week, a fellow by the name of Dan Ellis, the "backup" goalie for the "why is hockey here" Tampa Bay Lightning, decided to start ranting on his twitter feed. Dan had quite the following on Twitter, some 11000 plus in actual fact. He was a little off the wall, comparing a hockey player to a specialist (I bet he mixes cheese and crayons for fun, and likely would cross the streams if he were a ghost buster) but otherwise was a harmless twitter shitter. That was, until he started complaining about money. Read on, and be forewarned for a parental advisory. Parents, be advised to watch your language around the youngin's when you read this:


While I can appreciate some of this, as in "Money doesn't make life better", he really went about a very toolish way of saying it. IMO, he should really get off of his "white-horse-of-I-know-better" and think about what he is saying. Right in the middle there, I think he kinda did say "whoops, people will get pissy about this" to himself and tried to recover. However, all he did was alienate himself more and more, as the following twitter shitters displayed with their scathing and somewhat humerous retorts, trending the topic "#DanEllisProblems":


Anyway, to the point of this blog, Greg Wyshynski wrote his opinion on this one, as it really was something that said "Wyshynski will eat this for breakfast". Do read this link, as it's a hoot.

Goalie Dan Ellis discovers lack of sympathy for whiney millionaires

In usual Wyshynski flare, he really lays it on Ellis, with good reason. However, for some reason, some folks turned on him when Mr. Ellis decided to shut down his twitter account. For some reason, Wyshynski felt it necessary to pull his punches a little and butter over some of his comments, saying he wasn't trying to chase Ellis off of twitter, but to help him realize he was harming his reputation with stupid comments. Read below:

Tampa goalie Dan Ellis leaves Twitter, and it's for the better

Well, in my opinion, people should back off Greg. He's just a guy on the web paid to get people to read him, and he does a very good job of that. Find him on twitter. He's worth the follow. Read his Puck Daddy column. It does at a light side to what has become a very shallow, money driven sport like hockey. He's genuine and you can be sure you are reading what he is actually thinking, of that there is no doubt. On top of it all, HE WAS RIGHT. Ellis was BEING A DICK. He went off his pills for a night and forgot he shouldn't alienate the people who like him. Greg commented on it, said what most of us were thinking about it, and gets called a douchebag and a tool. On top of it all, he DID DO what he said he did in his watered down retort. He never took a personal shot at Ellis once, unlike many other people did.

Twitter and it's kin are places where people will say what they want to a public forum. When someone from the general public says something, it's ignored as stupidity and everyone move on. Myself being case-in-point #1 with this blog. But when someone who is a public figure, especially one making millions of dollars, speaks out saying "poor poor pitiful me" concerning the millions he makes, it will get scrutinized. It will get torn to pieces. These people have the right to say it. I'm in no way saying that they do not. HOWEVER... be prepared for the fallout. Don't blame someone like Greg Wyshynski for it or any of your troubles.

I always have trouble ending chats like, I end up talking in circles. so I'll end that there.

----------------------------
Anyway, enjoy your day and hope to see you soon.

Upcoming topics:

- NHL 11
- Two Worlds Review
- Spider-man Shattered Dimensions disappointment.
- the absolute pleasure of seeing old friends
- Camera 35 starts again!

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The return to Blogosphere

It's been a few days since my last sitdown with a keyboard and a can of coke. In that time, I've managed to actually pick up my camera again and take a few shots (nothing spectacular, mind you), I have spent a little time working on maps again (almost prepared for the fall launch) and have gotten to enjoy a meaningless, do nothing, but fantastic long weekend.

I recently sat down with Steph and started a sit through of EVERY BONES EPISODE. For me, it started getting a little stale through season 2, but Steph likes the show so she has managed to get through to the middle of season 4. The whole Zacklash thing at the end of season 3 is well documented and worth mentioning, when a crowd favorite gets removed from the show. But, it was well done, and it keeps show watchers "guessing" as to what will happen next. David Boreanez is a great actor, knowing his character from Angel and seeing this one in Bones, as well as some of the movies he's done (Crow: Wicked Prayer, some horror flick Called Valentines Day, I believe) he has a strong range of characterization. I hope he gets to start really doing feature films soon.

We went on a nice walk in Bowring Park with the cameras and a light mood Monday past. I got to take some shots of flowers and ducks, the usual stuff from the park. I think that a part of why I've gotten a little tired of taking photos is because of the painfully limited amount of things I can do. I have the two lenses, the 50mm 1.8 prime and the 35-80mm multi purpose lense. I want ZOOM. I can't have it yet. :( I have a wedding coming too, I have to find myself some zoom capabilities.

In gaming, I picked up my copies of Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions and NHL 11 tuesday past. NHL is NHL. Not much to talk about there beyond some fun, new rosters and basic updates over last year. There is the "Ultimate Hockey Team" thing, which masks the fantasy draft and custom team thing with opening packs of hockey cards. Intresting, but done before. Still, I LOVE hockey, so I like it.

Spider-man is, so far, a basic beat em up with the fun elements of 4 different Spider-men to play. To be honest with you, I get more a feel of Spider-man: Friend of Foe, than my personal favorite, Spider-man: Web of Shadows. Friend or foe being the family friendly easy to play with little or no depth style game, and Web of Shadows essentially being Grand Theft Spidey, an open sandbox styled world with lots to do. The levels in Shattered Dimensions are linear, which is fine. The graphics are different for each world of Spider-man. The Noir world is nothing short of inspired, and the 2099 world is stunning. The standard spider-man and the "ultimate" world are pretty basic looking and so far not very impressive to me. The cell shading gives a cartoony style look, which I sadly do not prefer in this instance.

I did play through Dead Rising: Case 0. I LOVED Dead Rising (see my post on an unhealthy affinity to the undead) so this was a real treat for me. It isn't long at all, but worth the 5 dollar download. It's more of the same, but that means more of the awesome. :D Saving survivors, ridiculous weapons (Why is there a broadsword rack in the hunting store???) and a ridiculous premise that bee stings turn you into zombies, but the game is just plain fun. Chopping zombies to pieces like they are butter is just fun. BTW: The producers telling us that this bridges Dead Rising 1 with Dead Rising 2 is a FARCE. Beyond a few lines of text in the intro movie, there is nothing that suggests the first game in the least throughout the whole thing. Not a big deal, but not really as advertised. It could simply have been done in the sequel rather than using it as a selling point for this game.



Has anyone noticed anything of real interest coming to TV in the fall? Beyond "The Cape", a sure fire cancellation show for NBC, I really haven't seen much to get excited about. Many of "my shows" aren't back this year, as 24, Heroes, and Lost are all off the schedule. Do I care for my daily dose of CSI? Meh. I'm sure Bones will now be a show I watch (see above) but outside of that, nothing. If anyone sees anything I might like, let me know! :D

THat is it for this week.

C

DING! 50000. 50245 to be exact.

Just broke 50000 gamerscore! Apparently, the final boss fight in Two Worlds is worth 370 gamerscore, so I blew past 50000 without breaking a sweat.
Check out Two Worlds, BTW. Steve, thanks for putting me onto it. I enjoyed it immensely, especially since I only paid $3.99 for it. Lots to do in the game still if I so choose, 160 gamerscore left (based on visiting everywhere in the game and levelling) but I doubt I'll get all of those.

I'll post a review of the game proper soon.



In short, I enjoyed this game as much as Oblivion and Divinity 2, but not near as much as Dragon Age. All four have graphical issues, with Two Worlds having the worst. Oblivion I played and enjoyed, but didn't see in it what most others saw. Divinity 2 and Two Worlds I felt like I'd found little treasures and enjoyed. Dragon Age, while ugly, was a well put together game, through and through.

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EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

Another fun Dr. Who graphic. I have it in vector as well. Drop me a line if you'd like a copy.

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Update on MArch to 50000

Almost there, now at 49840! Thought it wouldn't happen till later. :) BTW: Two Worlds,while flawed, doesn't suck. :)

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A little about inspiration.

Inspiration is one of the most wonderful things in the world. It makes you feel amazing, it makes you smile, it makes you productive. It is something to painfully lacking in this world that I believe that it is more valuable than gold, platinum, and equal in value to even love.
To be inspired is to be something special. What inspires us? Well, for me, it can be something as simple as a great new song or a fantastic new photo. It drives me to want more and to be more, because I want to be elevated to that level of inspiration all the time.Being in the business of creativity, inspiration for me has to be something VERY interesting to get me to do something unique and different. Far too often, I find myself using the same letter styles, the same borders, the same little "tricks" to get my work out a little faster. But every so often, I'll see that something special and say "oh", and go into a designing ferver, trying to create something that makes me feel that same "inspirational" level.
Here are a few things that have inspired me in the past.

Music
Big Sugar - All Hells for a Basement
To me, this song just "bleeds" cool. I sat in my car with a smile on my face when I first heard it. I could care less what the song was/is about. I just love that guitar riff.

Art
Greg Capullo artwork featuring Spawn


Now, I'm a tried and true Todd Mcfarlane fan, reading his Spider-man comic books back when the world was in a fit for comics back in the early 90's. But Capullo took the character of Spawn and really breathed a new life into him, taking an almost homage-like style of Mcfarlane's and adding an almost fluidity of natural emotion. This is very hard, given that this character really isn't that deep.

Photography

A Lovely Sunset By Jennifer Wells


Lens baby shot by Geoff Holden


I used to use photography as a vessel to channel inner turmoil, but now it has become something so much more to me. I've mentioned Jenn and Geoff a few times through this blog over the past year or so, and to be honest, their work and others from the camera group I became involved with, Camera 35, has driven me to become so much more than I ever was before when I handled those fenangled little black boxes that capture life so eloquently.

Life

My wife.


Stephanie has done so much more me in my life. She's been there for me through thick and thin, she's shown me life and hope. She's loved me and still does. (Boy have I got her fooled!!!) Pictured here is her, in all her lovely self on her wedding day.

Well, those are just a small smattering of things that bring life to me and a sparkle to my eyes. Far too often, you see people walking around, looking like they have no life or love or any joy at all, simply living out their days til death takes pity on them. Don't be a gray soul, be a lively soul and take some joy in life. You only get one. :)

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A New Look

Getting a little tired of the brown mappy thingie, I decided to liven it up a little with a new look. Hope you like.

:)

C