Every few years or so, I hit a moment in my life where everything changes. Sometimes the good happens - my meeting Lacey turned me from a lazy gamer into a biking, weight-losing lovestruck fool - while the bad also happens - miserable failures in college - for example.
Nearly two weeks ago, I hit one of those defining moments.
So the past two weeks have been nothing but constant reflection for me. Last week was easily the hardest week of my life - I did something I should not have a while back, and I can't explain why I did it. Lying has always been trouble for me, and I pushed a little too far, a little too hard, and hurt someone who means the world to me. Suffice to say, we agreed that we love each other enough to work out my problems, discuss our options, and above all else, stick together and get through our problems. So far, our recovery has been tremendously successful.But that doesn't mean that I'm out of the woods yet... in fact, as I mentioned, I've been spending lots of time trying to put my life in order. It is not an exaggeration to say that a time of great change is coming for me - and I need to make sure that I'm on the right path going forward, putting the proper priorities first.During a time when I can barely control my own schedule, it's hell to have the unplanned happen: video games, random trips out, and a lack of motivation hurt me to no end right now. In the remaining five full weeks of school, I need to do an incredible amount of work - and these five weeks should matter the world to me: I graduate in the first week of May. School is over. No more classes. It's fascinating to me: I'm done with "the grind" - although I know I'll never stop learning. Quite the contrary, once summer begins, I plan to reflect on my five years at BGSU and study like hell everything that I have learned thus far. On top of full-time at Meijer, job-hunting, studying, and (hopefully) biking, I'm going to be a very busy person.So that's all that I need to prepare for in the coming months. I can do it... right?Well in order to get there and get through all that needs to be done, I need to make better decisions now: my priorities right now (in about this order), look like this: school, Colleen, work, writing, and free time. Juggling the first three items on that list is a bitch, although I feel that I do it pretty well (I hope Colleen agrees with me!). Still, sometimes I get the feeling that I need more space, and that's what this past week has been about.I'm beginning a process of moving some of my digital life offline in an effort to privatize myself. In a world where I want more control over my day to day life, I find it necessary to scale back the convenience of broadcasting myself all over the Internet in favor of being able to stick to my own private schedule.Thus, the changes that I'm slowly beginning to implement are:- Until I begin working a full-time job that takes advantage of my degree, my Google Calendar and public contact information will be... well, less public... as in, not available.
- My Facebook and MySpace profiles will becom smaller, more limited, and highly private however possible, and may see complete removals in the near future, depending on my career needs.
- The BrandonBruno.com portal is being dropped until well into summer. In the meantime, the URL will point to Critically Correct. Sometime after graduation, I plan to relaunch it with a strong focus on content: either 1) an all-in-one blog/calendar/profile page or 2) a services page of some kind (most likely small tech support stuff or hosting for my software development projects). Point is, it will be changing.
I hope these temporary changes are for the better, namely for the sake of allowing me to better balance my professional and personal lives.With that, I will be heading to bed shortly. I will certainly be updating Critically Correct on a more regular schedule now, so stay tuned for lots of news and updates of how things have been going for me.B3 out.
As if this semester can't possibly fill my schedule enough, I'm still falling behind. I'm constantly tired, but doing my best to balance all aspects of my life: school, work, girlfriend, and gaming. Right now I'm beginning to think that I'm only built for three out of those four at a time. Something's got to give.With warmer weather slowly returning to Northwest Ohio, I'm beginning to feel a bit better about everything in general. Unfortunately, feeling positive and doing well are two different things. First is school: I'm not doing nearly as good as I think I am. The easiest answer for this is to shift time away from some other aspect of my life in order to boost study time. I can do that - but bye-bye games I suppose. I came into this semester playing games casually: plenty of focus on school and work, but some Wii on the side. As the semester progressed, I have slowly been drawn into more and more games: new Wii games, Virtual Console games, and lots of DS action - not to mention Audiosurf.With the warmer weather taking over, I know that I need to get outside more often. In order to make time for this, something has got to go: video games, perhaps? As much as I hate to admit it, the reoccurring pattern is undeniable: despite being a gamer at heart, it's constantly getting in the way of other things in my life, and I need to balance my time with them better.It is hard to say exactly how this semester will end up, but with less than seven weeks remaining, I have a lot of work to do in order to stay ahead. Warm weather will help my spirits a lot, so I hope that this cold, crappy, over-extended winter can get out of here and make way for a more positive future for me.Out.
I wanted to go back to school this week with a bang. I was thinking about sledding in the wonderfully white snow about us, or perhaps relaxing with video games and music all night.Instead I spent the whole night with my wonderful girlfriend, doing something that I rarely do: cooking. I picked up a few ingredients from Meijer earlier in the day and whipped together some quick Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo for the two of us at the apartment. I was hoping that Elise would've been there too, but she was busy I suppose. Still, I enjoyed the shared experience of preparing a more proper meal than our fast food-based diet has become.Suffice to say, despite a few rough corners, dinner was a success, as was spending the rest of the evening working on tidbits of homework, watching a little television, and in general, being lazy.Not exactly sledding or gaming, but highly worthwhile nonetheless. I look forward to cooking dinner many more nights in the future :-)
And today is it: the end of Spring Break 2008.And it is my last, so it has a bit more of a special meaning. I will no longer have any obvious breaks in my routine to look forward to, perhaps except for holidays and weekends (oh, and hopefully a week or two in the summer between job transitions... wait, do I have a job yet?). Spring break has always been about spending time away from school and work, and with friends instead. By and by large, a lot of my spring breaks have always been spent with one person, so this past week has been unique: I've spent time with a lot of my friends, on and off. I also spent lots of alone time curled up with my fiction, my music, and my games (Audiosurf *drool*).Looking back at this spring break, I could not but help ask myself: which spring break has been the best for me? Like all comparisons I do, I organized, sorted, and decided. Summaries and results below.Spring Break 2004: My first spring break away from BGSU was anything but. I was firmly attached to my new job at Meijer (Systems Department) and was enjoying escalating responsibilities there. Without much money or desire to travel, my first spring break was spent at work or at home. This break was just into the first weeks that I was dating Lacey, and we spent lots of time together...Spring Break 2005: Fuck Ohio? Deep into our relationship, Lacey and I decided to take a vacation proper during spring break, and we thought that sunny Los Angeles would be perfect. With $700 a piece out the door for airfare and hotel, we set off for 6 days and five nights in... cold, cloudy Los Angeles. So the March weather there isn't great. We enjoyed mid-sixty degree temperatures and cloudy skies, but no swimming or beaches. Still, we got around (on foot and public transportation!) to see lots of downtown, tons of shopping, Hollywood, and lots of local food (okay, well Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, but still...). All in all, it was one hell of an experience, especially for someone who has been sheltered all his life.Spring Break 2006: Well into my miserably single life (although by now I has just met someone rather special...), I set out for the Smoky Mountains with an old friend of mine, Brent, and had the single best five days of my life. From a long road trip to random stops in Cincinnati to the sheer challenge and thrill of mountain hiking and camping, I sat awestruck every day of the trip. I got to experience basic survival techniques during the trip, particularly when it came to water (I constantly ran out, and I now respect water far more than anyone else I know). I also took plenty of pics.Spring Break 2007: Off year? Because of finances and other factors (busy with school work, actually), I took this spring break off to enjoy time at home (I took a good portion of it off work as well). Nothing exciting, but certainly a needed break. Realizing that I would be going to BGSU for a fifth year, I decided to use this break to organize myself for a full, painful year ahead of me.Spring Break 2008: And again, here I am. Everything about this break has reflected my recent attitude changes about life: moderation (small trip), desire to see my family (trip to Middletown to see my sister, time spent at home), and self-healing to make sure I'm on the right path for graduation (alone time has helped a lot). Suffice to say, this break has been a bit random, and very fulfilling overall, and I don't regret any minute of it (well, I did want to go to Mammoth Cave pretty badly...). Overall, a big thumbs up, I think. Too bad I go back to my normal routine tomorrow (I have homework to do for this week!). I also took plenty of pics this break.So if I had to rank my spring breaks, which would come out on top? It's an easy choice for the most part.1) Spring Break 2006 was easily my favorite: the Smoky Mountains were an incredible learning experience that allowed me to connect with nature in ways I never have before.2) Spring Break 2008 comes in second, although I debated about 2005 being second. Los Angeles was a great learning experience as well as fun all around, but 2008 let me be with the people I love the most day in and day out (IHOP, anyone?), and the variety of things that I did - from traveling across the state to sitting on my ass for days at a time - has made it one to remember.3) Spring Break 2005 rounds out the top three, with the other two breaks just tossed near the bottom for good measure. It's been an interesting five-years at BGSU, and an even more interesting spring break every year.Well, here's to stress-free time off... I'll miss spring breaks a lot.B3 out.
I love to listen to music more than anything while I'm writing, which makes this review insanely difficult to forge through. Writing a review about a game that forces me to redefine how I listen to music - while listening to music - seem archaic. I could finish writing this review while listening to my favorite tunes, or I could experience my tunes. Problem is, the review will never get done.More and more in today's gaming industry, games are created that blend the paradigms of what it means to experience music. Twenty years ago, music was listened to. With the advent of Dance Dance Revolution some fifteen years ago, the gaming industry began to tap into a different way to experience music: interactively. This notion of interacting with music has grown exponentially, with an endless supply of rhythm-action games from the likes of Konami, and more recently Red Octane. Developers everywhere are beginning to get in on the music gaming business - Disney, EA, and Nintendo are the three big names now dipping their toes into that water.Funny thing is, it seems that one man has already jumped the gun on everyone else, and with the help of Valve and Steam, has created the music-based video game to beat. Everyone else can sit down and just learn at this point. Audiosurf is perfect in almost every way, and here's why.The concept of Audiosurf is mind-numbingly simple to grasp, yet confusing to look at in person, yet always cool in presentation. Luckily, it doesn't take long to get into the groove of the game. The concept: surf down a virtual "road" and collect colored "cars" (or blocks, if you will) into a three-column playing field. Match three or more colors in any adjacent pattern on the playing field to clear them and score points. Combos can be built be adding together more than three colors at at time, or by scoring particular combinations of certain colors (red are worth more than blue, for example). Like the granddaddy of puzzle games, Tetris, Audiosurf is all about score. The game can be confusing to new players: a lot of colors, lines, and fancy graphics exploding all over the screen, all the while your vehicle is always racing down the track without delay.What makes all of this experience unique, however, is that it is built around your music. In a society where everyone has a musical taste that can be defined by their playlists, Audiosurf allows you to choose any audio file for use as the backbone of the game. The tracks are built unique for every song that you import into the game, and no two experiences will be alike (unless you play the same song over and over, of course).As where games like DDR and Guitar Hero create a sense of euphoria for the player, binding his or her actions to the accuracy of the music on screen, Audiosurf does not punish you acoustically for failing. This is a puzzle game first - the music you choose to play with matches every expectation of beat, rhythm, and speed that your music may portray, and creates an incredible puzzle game for it.Love the Foo Fighters? Get ready to race extremely fast downhill most of the time, weaving in and out of blocks just barely fast enough to get by to the end. More a Norah Jones person? You'll get to play plenty of relaxing, slow-paced, uphill tracks that let you take in the scenery and build your combos slowly. The game analyzes your music upon each load, and saves the track for subsequent play, making self-competitions for high scores very entertaining. Any song, voice, or random noise can make the game, and I've found an awesome blend of Live, Train, Alanis Morissette, Tantric, and others constantly making the rounds in Audiosurf.Taking a lesson from Nintendo, Audiosurf is built for any type of player. If you want to take it slow and free-ride any track without worrying about the puzzle game itself, you can do so, and the experience of shooting up and down over your music's beats is all the same incredible. Want an endless barrage of five colors of blocks, dozens of power-ups, tight twists and turns, and blistered fingers? It can be done. With a diverse array of more than a dozen play styles, combined with the personalization of using your own music, Audiosurf is a game that almost defies categorization at the difficulty level. Anyone can play it, and anyone can enjoy it.
Therein lies a key to Audiosurf - it allows for music to be experienced in a way that has never been done before. It's a highly visual game, and whether music is high-energy or low-key, the game always generates tracks that "feel" right for your favorite music: bass-thumping beats get lots of up-and-down bumps in the road, mellow violin solos get smooth uphill inclines, and power-junkie chorus hooks get a sudden drop off in the road, thrusting right into the action without hesitation. This kind of raw, visceral feeling is something Audiosurf executes well to create a new, intimate place to experience your music.
Theoretically, Audiosurf can be played forever - as long as new music is released, new play experiences can be built. More so than any music game that I have ever played (including the Guitar Hero series), Audiosurf elevates my enjoyment of music from listening to experiencing. With a solid puzzle game built around deep customization and a solid, edge-of-your-seat thrill in every play-through, it's hard to find any fault in Audiosurf. I supposed the menu system is a but clunky, but this is an impossibly minor grip for what I consider to be the single best music game ever designed, and I look forward to many years enjoying it. The asking price of US$9.99 is laughable - I would have paid three times as much for this experience, and thus it makes little sense why everyone should not own Audiosurf.
The first third of my spring break was fantastic all around, so without delay, the breakdown.Friday: After last-minute packing and numerous delays, I set out with Colleen for Middletown, Ohio around 9:00pm, and arrived just after 11:00pm to meet my sister. After a late-night Taco Bell run (oh man, I sure miss those) and getting comfortable, we headed to bed with high hopes for the visit.Saturday: Waking up late (9:00am!?!), we headed out for a delicious breakfast of sorts at Ci Ci's Pizza around 11:00am, and damn - was it ever good! I did not realize this until today, but there is a Ci Ci's in Toledo... my eating habits are forever changed now that I have to make a weekly trip up there. Anywho, we ventured to the Newport Aquarium (after tons of driving-around-craziness), and it was quite a sight. To be honest, I didn't see anything at Newport that I couldn't have seen at the Toledo Zoo, and our local Zoo also does rain forests better. Anywho, a couple of videos from the aquarium are on YouTube, linked below:After Newport we ventured back to Middletown for some much-needed food (White Castle!), and plenty of gaming and relaxing around the house. It was a cozy little home-away-from-home, and I was totally cool with simply doing nothing for a few hours. On a positive note, I did get to see The Descent, which was an incredibly entertaining horror film. I rarely watch horror films on purpose, but I sat through to the end fairly frightened and intrigued - something movies have not done since The Ring.Sunday: After "breakfast" out at Sonic (again, damn yummy!), we headed into downtown Cincinnati for the Bodies - the Exhibition at the museum. Why did we spend part of our spring break looking at preserved dead bodies? Because it was awesome, that's why. Although Bodies is a rough knock-off of Body Worlds (and not nearly as thorough as Body Worlds), it was not a bad way to spend an afternoon nonetheless. Sunday night saw us eating a tasty Chinese buffet before spending more time in front of the television.Monday: Oops. We were planning to travel to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We were supposed to be up at 5:00am for the 4-hour drive. Imagine my surprise when we woke up around 6:00am, 8:00am, and finally 10:00am, before giving up hope. Instead of caving (seriously, after watching The Descent!?), Colleen and I ventured to Ci Ci's for one last bite of insanely tasty pizza buffet, then back to Sonic for one last drink... and then, we drove and drove and drove (and peed a few times) and drove home. It was 58 degrees that morning in Cincinnati - and 31 degrees when we arrived at home. Poopy!Although short, it was still a nice trip that has been long overdue. I was thrilled to be spending time away from home with people I care about (Melissa, Colleen), and I hope to return to Middletown sooner rather than later.
With that said, I have 6 more days to chill, relax, and have fun... besides a dentist appointment, taxes, and work, I'm free of responsibility, and I'm going to go cuddle with a good friend of mine: video games.B3 out.
