NERD-GASM!!! (Originally posted on MySpace on Wednesday, September 27, 2006)

I'm not the worlds biggest Halo fan. I think it's fun and all, but I'm not a slavering fan boy...still I am a big fan of RTS action. Which is why the announcement at X06 of a new XBox 360 RTS game set in the halo universe called halo wars. looks pretty cool...check it out:

Had a good talk with Greg. (Originally posted on MySpace on Saturday, September 23, 2006)

Well I spent my whole lunch break on the phone with the McGee. He and Genevieve are moving to the new house on Saturday. He sounded pretty good. Said he's been playing a lot of emulated old Dos games in his spare times...which reminds me I need to figure out the SCUMM emulation on my pocket PC so I can get around to playing Secret of MOnkey Island while I'm on the go.

Tonight is Ezzy's B-Day, so I"m gonna swallow my pride and go to a Hip Hop club over the hill. It's the Century Club...you might have heard Dr. Dre rap about it from time to time.

My old Buddy Joey Bazolio used to work there when I first moved to LA...so I've been there before...it wasn't the kind of place I'd go out of my way to go to again. My only hope is that Becca comes home to pooped to pop and can't make it...otherwise I'll spend the whole night getting teased about my "lack of rhythm" and "inability to get crunk." Still Ezzy's been a pretty good sport about going to the goth clubs with me and Becca...and it is her birthday...so looks like we're going. We can all get in free if we get there between I think 9 and 10PM...so if anyone wants to go with us...head to the Century Club and tell 'em your with Ezzy's party...

See you there.

going to reno. (Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, September 14, 2006)

Well, this time tomorrow night I'll be in Reno with Kellie and the Ol' Man. We're going to the Reno Air Races. I'll post some Pics when I get back.

Nitzer Ebb show last night. (Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, September 14, 2006)

Saw Nitzer Ebb last night. It was totally sweet. The venue was at the House of Blues in Anaheim. Which is in Downtown Disney. Kind of a wierd place to see Nitzer Ebb. Disneyland. But the venue was so small...it was really cool. It's kind of depressing though when you think about it. Here's a band that played with (well I guess, opened for) depeche mode and now Depeche Mode is selling out Arenas and Nitzer Ebb is touring to support a greatest hits album and haven't put out any new material since the mid-90s.

Still they were great. They played every song you could want to hear by them...I mean...all the hits anyway. I wouldn't have minded if they played all the songs from That Total Age in order...and just did a couple of songs form their other albums as an encore. But there are hardcore Ebb Heads out there who wanted to hear stuff from Big Hit. I don't get that...but I guess it's like how everyone goes apeshit when Depeche Mode plays I Feel You...which I always thought was kind of a week single...so to each their own.

They sounded great, looked great, and had lots of energy...which considering how long its been since they've been on the road is pretty inpiring. And the new drummer chick was hot...so that rounded out the evening nicely.

I don't really think there are "camps" in teh industrial scene...but I've gotten into a few arguments about who is more played out Nitzer Ebb or Skinny Puppy....frankly I'm a skinny puppy hater...and I can't see why anyone would prefer them over Nitzer Ebb...but that goes back to personal preference I guess.

My only complaint is that they didn't really spruce up any of the arangements much. I mean...it's a dangerous thing when an electronic band sounds too much like the album...cause then it's like...I could ahve just stayed home and listened to the CD.

Still I hope they put out another album...and go on tour again. It was a great show.

still got a month...but better get the ball rolling. (Originally posted on MySpace on Friday, September 08, 2006)

Becca has been tellling me to send her my Birthday wish list so she can get to shopping. I figure I might as well post it on the ol' blog in case some of my faithful readers want to by some gifts to celebrate my 30th B-Day.

I know I didn't even send any words of happy birthdaying to Karin...so I feel guilty...but in all honesty I didn't even know it was her birthday till I got the angry email from her...so maybe everyone should just by a gift for her cause I'm undeserving....

But if not here is a link to my Amazon wish list. I love these things:

Everybody lies.... (Originally posted on MySpace on Wednesday, September 06, 2006)

In honor of the new season of House MD heres a cool link:






It's basically some doctor nit picking all the medical mumbo jumbo in the show. It's really interesting, cause as much as I love the show I always wonder how accurate it is and how plausible the weekly barrage of miricle cures is.

Anyways go read it...and watch that damn show...it's great.

more XNA research (Originally posted on My Space on Friday, September 01, 2006)

WEll, I downloaded Visual Basic C. It is free...but you have to have Windows XP SP2 installed on your PC to run the XNA dev program. I don't have that at work...so it means I can twiddle around with it on my lunch break...But I should be able to get it running at home. I'm gonna have to buy a visual basic C book and and XNA dev programing book. I think we should start out with something really really simple for our first few games...like a pong clone, a tetris clone, and a pac man clone...just to get the hang of development and then move onto bigger better programs under the Arnold Brother Music and Rhythm BrainTrust and the Arnold Brother Strategic Space Sim Co-Operative Labels.

I know you can all read...but...some responses to the McGEE. (Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, August 31, 2006)

First off...

There seems to be a micro$oft style gold lining to this whole thing. I downloaded the beta for the XNA tool and when I tried to install it, it told me that I needed to have Visual Basic C.. installed.

Ah, I see...so the XNA is only 99 bucks...but the Visual Basic...I don't know how much that is...but I'm guessing it's like 500 bucks or something. haven't looked into it to hard...but if we're gonna make any money of these games we're gonna have to buy all the necessary software...it'd make our (eventual) legal team a little leary if the PONG clone we churn out and make millions with was made using a cracked copy of Visual Basic...and we get sued.

Also, I can't work on any game stuff at work...since I signed this form that said that THQ owns the rights to game related stuff I work on while here...fair enough, I don't have time to do much at work besides work anyway...sometimes I have demand a piss break...but more on that in a later blog.

Here are my thoughts on Greg's questions.

- you thought the old man was hard to convince The Arnold Brothers' true fortune lies in the future of American gaming, wait to see the colossal effort involved in getting the wives on board

That maybe true...but once they're buying new living room sets every six months "Vickie-style" they'll change there tunes. Besides...we ahve no choice...we need to harness the "GIRL GAMER" voice if we are to penetrate the POGO/Yahoo Games set...these days you can't rely on gamer's to pay all the bills...gotta get those soccer moms sitting in the bleechers on their cell phones during practice...;)

- does this mean we get to buy $3,000 PC setup with peripherals and write it off our taxes?

That is what that means.

- Shall we unlock the full potential of an already overmined genre, or invent our own, hearken to better times, or look to the future of interactive imaginitive play?

We're not reinventing the wheel here...we're going to refine a well worn genre with our patented "ARNOLD-Y-NESS". Just to start out with we gotta come on strong with quality and innovation then we can experiment. Just look at Geometry Wars...hardly a new concept but that game is fun and excellently executed...we want to do something at that level of quality...with a 99 dollar development tool and little in the way of true computer programming experience...in fact...most likely Emma will be the CTO for the company since she has the most programming experience...even if it is only JAVA...but still...

-who will be the Aeschylus to our Shakespeare? (original issue vs. later guy who made ripped-off stuff famous) - Family Fun Sierra? Cult Classic Westwood? Pimple Faced Microprose? Korean Supertech Blizzard?

I'm leaning towards something along the lines of a star control (just to get raleigh and emma passionate and on board) or a classic heroes of might and magic side on tactical thing...

-which foreign market is best for laundering our fuzzy math bank accounts?

looks like we're all "moving" to Jamaca.

I'll start sketching for the first big high power business conference in Wells

KYOTO - AUSTIN - SILICON VALLEY - WELLS!!!!

The Arnold Brother Video Game Company ® Starts today!!!! (Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, August 31, 2006 )

About this week a year ago my dad sat us all down over at RAleigh and Emma's house with some pizza and told us he wanted to give us 50,000 bucks so Raleigh and I could give up our jobs and become slum lords. I asked the old man if he'd give us the same amount of money and let us start a cell phone game company. His response was essentially the same as if I had asked him if Raleigh and I could use the money to get those breast implants we'd always wanted.

Anyway. Microsoft has announced that it is releaseing a "lite" version of its game development software for public use. If you pay a 99 buck a year liscensing fee you can even upload the games you make to Xbox Live Arcade, so people with Xbox 360s can download them and play.

What does that mean...well it means that we can get this program and start working on the first of a series of arnold brother video games...all of it without any of the old man's blood money. pretty sweet.

The Beta for this program was released today. it's a little rough ...but you'll get the idea.

Here's a link

"When the going gets wierd the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson (Originally posted on MySpace on Monday, August 21, 2006)

Aaron complained that all I do is write about work. I guess I do that, because Herman complained that all ANYONE ever does is blog about being sick or what they ate today. I guess that's true. When I first started blogging, I think that I was hoping to tap into some kind of new melenium zeitgiest...but in the end I think that blogging on myspace is at worst just some masterbatory exercise in bitching and maybe at best a cheap attention grab.

So at least I try to make mine interesting. I don't know.

Anyway...not much is going on in my life BUT work at the moment. Ever since Becca and I decided that we were gonna bail out on any summer trips to save money I've been throwing myself into work.

The two primary things going on in my life right now is hanigng with my friends drinking mojitos and the continuing cat piss drama. We have had a hard time getting ahold of Foxy's old owner, and meanwhile Jeff was literally in tears, begging us to do something about the smell in the hallway. I feel really really bad for him. It totally sucks. If I was in his position I'd be fucking LIVID and SCREAMING. He has been totally cool though and really understanding. Our apartment manager thinks we can steam clean the smell out once the cat is gone...but I'm convinced that nothing short of replacing the carpet itself will solve the problem...so there goes another 300 bucks on that cat. Becca is totally heart broken about it. The cat is really sweet and cute and it's pretty hard to give her back...but we really dont' have a choice...she's creating so much stress around the house that it just isn't gonna work...and also Becca feels really responsible for the whole situation. I told her that she did everything she could (which she did) and that in the end...Foxy's just a wild living animal and there really is n't much we can do to stop a free spirited force of nature. It was a really tough morning...Jeff was welling up saying he could live like this any more and that he thought about it all the time and it was killing him...and basically begged us to take it seriously...and on the other side becca is like racked with guilt and depression. Oh did I mention that Becca is also quitting smoking? she is..she's on day 14 without a cigarette...which is totally awesome...but not really putting her in the best mood to deal with a bunch of emotional upheaval. So it's been trying...So we'll see...hopefully we'll get rid of the cat...replace the carpet...and everything will be back to normal...I'm even seriously considering taking down the action figures just cause Jeff's been so cool...kind of like my sacrifice for his sacrifice.

Of course a night of drinking Mojitos took some of the edge off. Ezzy and Aaron came over, and Becca whipped up some excellent mojitos with fresh mint and fresh squeezed limes...man they were good. of course the night degenerated into us embarasing Aaron by forcing him to watch bondage porn DVDs and eventually playing drunken Star Wars BAttlefront 2. It was classic...

But now I have a hang over....a hangover called Scooby PSP...which just came in for its third round of submission discs today...which means I gots to get back to work...night all.