Soundtrack Thursday 12

It's been a rough week. Busy at work, a lot going on, a couple of tough conversations and an extreme lack of sleep has left me pretty spent for a Thursday. So I'm sitting, kind of spaced out at my desk, wishing I was at home spaced out playing Dishonored because I'm almost done the game, and thinking about how I said goodbye to my coworker at the second level, forgetting that he worked on the third level with me. Awkward.

I have tea. I have chocolate chip banana muffins. I have 7.5 hours left to get through. Let's do this.

I'm going to pick soundtracks from some of my favourite movies.

 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - I want to do another LOTR movie marathon, extended versions. But now I feel like I should include The Hobbit movies...I don't think I have enough time in a day/enough energy to get me through it all. I've now done 2 and a half 3 movie marathons. The one marathon is only a half because we fast forwarded through some of the slower parts. Though if you count the ski weekend where people turned it into a drinking game and we watched one movie a night...that's still not a marathon.

The Avengers - How have I never posted this for soundtrack Thursday yet? I love the Avengers. Best midnight showing I've ever gone to, mostly because of the collective geekiness of the entire audience. Someone one lone gentleman managed to quiet the entire theatre for the shawarma scene...for about 1.5 seconds. I'm also pretty sure that half the people in the theatre freaked out at the credit preview despite not knowing who the hell that guy was. I can only describe it as a collective "OHHHHHHH, OH SHIT" and then frantic whispers of "wait, so who was that?"

4 Hours left if I skip lunch break and just eat while I work. There is a piece of dried mango stuck between my teeth. I can't get it out. Seriously, people over-complicate torture. All you need is constantly administered minor irritants that cannot be stopped. Popcorn stuck in teeth, Katy Perry pop songs on loop, finger nails on chalkboard, finger nails on denim, being gagged and forced to listen to lectures from Creationists, Clockwork Orange style screenings of Michael Bay movies...

Captain America - Because I'm on that track now after the Avengers and I want to listen to that super catchy song. I should look up a survey on everyone's favourite Avenger from the movies. I think Captain America would probably be in the lower numbers. No love for good old Cap =(

Also, I saw the Need for Speed movie last night and I am unsure of whether it was delightfully awful, or brain damaging. It was basically a 2 hour and 10 minute commercial for Ford full of plot points that went absolutely no where, unrealistic interpretations of time, a ton of stressful reckless driving, 20+ casualties for the sake of two grudge matches (one to prove that he was innocent of one casualty while they ignored the countless others), tired tropes, hilariously awkward moments, poorly delivered lines, a woman who couldn't decide on an accent (though I think that was a joke?) and a good ten seconds worth of Rami Malek's ass. Aside from the speaking parts and the unnecessary ass shots, it stayed true to the video game. Cars, fast driving, casualties and interesting courses.

Oh crap I'm getting sucked into a critique. I honestly could spend pages picking apart this movie and nothing would be accomplished. Okay in short: movie exceeded expectations, but that says something when expectations of the movie was "wow, this will be shit"

Also...why do you keep selling out to terrible movies Linkin Park? Granted the song used here (and I'm enough of a geek to have recognized the tune from the first couple of notes...) actually WORKED (cough cough Iridescent), but seriously, can't you guys can't sell out to a good movie once in awhile?

PS - No videos have been been uploaded in the past few days because my motivation to make them has been at an all time low. I will remedy this on the weekend.

Pop Music

It's amazing how many shitty mainstream pop songs make me physically ill now. I hear them and something inside me twists and I feel like projectile vomit is the only answer. Thankfully I've trained myself to mock the songs incessantly so a bucket or a washroom has not been needed to this day.

Also, I should point out that chrome doesn't think washroom is a word. But aside from "toilet," "washroom" makes way more sense in public. Because if you say you have to go to the "bathroom," there is rarely any baths in public places like restaurants or parks, and a "restroom" really makes no sense because I can't think of any way a public washroom is restful. At least if you say "washroom," a person is more likely to wash their hands or something in there unless you are camping and the portable toilet has no sink, but in that case there is normally hand sanitizer. But are you really "washing" if you use hand sanitizer? It's more like killing germs and spreading dirt around as it absorbs. So really, we need to come up with a better way of saying "I need to go to the room where you poop."

What was the point of this post again?

Oh yeah. I'm going to release the first two parts of Half Life 2 this evening.

Soundtrack Thursday 11

Not sure what I wanted to do today for music, so I decided to go through the list of soundtracks recommended/shared with me that I haven't gotten around to yet. So today we have:

NeiR - I must admit, it was a lot better than I anticipated. Lots of good tracks.

Chrono trigger - A game I've never played, but want to try.

Earthbound - Actually watched a full LP twice. But I want to play it anyway.

LP News!

-I've been busy/lazy in editing Bioshock Infinite and Penumbra (no surprise there), so I posted a couple other videos in the meantime. Shauna has been wanting me to post the Haunted Memories video, so I have done so. It's pretty awful. I get that it was made by very few people, but I have seen MUCH better games (and mods) made by only one person, so really it's not an excuse.

-I have way more Dishonored videos than Half Life 2 ones prepared. How did that happen when I'm planning on posting Half Life 2 first?

-Co-Op Magicka is finished and should be uploaded starting today. I think Voyeur is posting one segment a day for the next little while, so I will link to that once he has started uploading them.

Stock Photos

For the past couple months I have been looking at the same type of stock photos for this one project I'm working on at...well work, and there are some really great caption opportunities. Stock photos have to be some of the most hilarious photos out there, but then you get creepy doctors with vials staring into webcams, or a group of business people that obviously get paid to do nothing all day as they sit around a table building towers out of solo cups. My favourite series of the day was this group of people all in suits in an empty concrete room sitting in a circle. It's like an AA meeting...only the pictures progress into two guys wrestling, and then having a pillow fight, and then one of the guys strangling the pillow, and then a woman with a red foam bat standing over an unconscious man...and I'm not exactly sure what's going on. I have to admit my favourite photo of the day is this. I can only assume this woman snapped from the pressures of the business world and decided to follow her dreams of world domination, taking this poor old man hostage. Just the sheer horror on the old man's face and the delight on the woman's face is just pure gold. (seriously, take a look at the tags and everything and tell me if you'd expect that based off what you see...I love how "communication" is one of them).  

Anyway, I'll take up the hobby of mocking stock photos another day. Penumbra and Bioshock Infinite are coming along slowly. Almost done Penumbra Overture...I have up to part 6 uploaded. Part 6 has some really good bits in it, especially since we didn't expect a few of the events. Bioshock Infinite is fairly good, though I've been fixing some problems with an echo picked up by the mic. I'm going to try and finish uploading Penumbra Overture by the weekend, and then I will (hopefully) bring you Half Life 2. 

Dinosaur Cowboys Guest Appearance

Last night I made a guest appearance in a Dinosaur Cowboys campaign. Let me just say that Oliver deeply regretted shooting the Green Menace in the back and killing him in the first turn. I may have lost my dinosaur and my sharp shooter (IN ONE HIT), but I destroyed everyone but his leader before the end of the game. Too bad we didn't get those extra turns or I would have got the extra coins and won (we were collecting "bits of meteorite" around the board, which were represented by quarters).

Posing right before my unit (hiding behind that fence there) killed his dinosaur. I was very pleased about that.

Anyway, check out the Dinosaur Cowboys game that my friend created. It's super fun and you don't need anything fancy to play. You can also see a summary of the campaign I joined for the evening, and the progression of the game (there were two parts of the campaign running at the same time...the other being a naval battle in that blue portion behind me). 

Soundtrack Thursday Episode 10

I figured out what's been creeping around in my backyard in the middle of the night. I heard leaves rustling again so I peered out the window and waited. Then, in the light of the walkway lamp I saw a black and white creature waddling away. Yep. The skunk still lives around here. I think it likes hiding under our deck. Maybe that's why White Cat hasn't been around. The skunk and White Cat must have had a duel to the death over the deck's underbelly.

Today is the third Thursday of March which means...Hans Zimmer day for soundtracks!

The Last Samurai - first single-movie compilation I found on YouTube. It's not bad so far. I'm finding it fairly neutral.

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows - Excellent tracks. Enjoyed this one so much that I'm going to listen to the Sherlock Holmes (original movie) soundtrack.

Shorter list today, but I was distracted by dogs. Coworkers brought their dogs in today and they were too adorable to ignore. I will post a picture later when I get emailed the shots.

Quick Update

Item 1: I've decided to alternate posting Penumbra and Bioshock Infinite, mostly because that is taking up the majority of the space on my drives, and they are cooperative projects with Shauna, meaning I want to get them posted quicker.

Item 2: I have not moved Half Life 2 footage off the computer I recorded it on yet. I am not done recording, but I think I will finish recording the entire LP before I post it, giving me time to upload the other content. This actually ties in with...

Item 3: I have a new hard drive. I caved yesterday at the store and purchased a 3tb hard drive, which should finally resolve my space issues. Though...I said that when I purchased the 2tb...

Item 4: I am terrible at Dishonored, but I am loving it. This will be the last LP posted out of the 4, and it is completely blind. I'll let that sink in. Yes...it is MESSY.