The Decade In Review: Ten Years of B3

I've seen two full decades come and go in my lifetime, and I'm halfway through another. What happens in ten years defines a person. As the first decade of this century closes, I invite you to take a look back with me at the most important ten years of my life thus far.

Prologue: 1999 - 2000

I began high school in 1999, and it was quite the social challenge for me at the time. I was mostly reserved, quiet, and stuck by the few unique friend I had made throughout middle school up to that point. My freshman year of high school was academically easy but socially awkward when I was not with the friends I knew the best. I loved my math classes for their ease but did not like the people in them. I enjoyed my computer classes since they aligned with my growing interests in computing, but the people around me got in my way more often than not. Gym, technical drawing, and art were not strong classes of mine either, but I still managed a decent first year of high school. I got my temporary driving permit by the end of my freshman year and was driving full-time within a year of that.

By far the most interesting movement of the time for me was my love of writing. Hardly considered a topic of interest before, I was hard at work on a work of fiction all throughout my freshman year of high school. "Meltdown" was its name and it would never see completion. However, my quirky-yet-entertaining English teacher, Mr. Weisbrod, quickly helped my fledgling writing skills to flourish, and he provided critical feedback and encouragement that pushed me into writing of greater depth, challenges, and much more vivid creativity. For the first time in my life, as the 1990's drew to a close, I considered myself a writer.

The Birth of B3: 2000

What is B3?

That is a question I am often asked, but I have never fully explained to any one person. I have instead always spoke in pieces; tiny chunks here and there. There is no definitive definition of B3, but there is a beginning.

During my sophomore year of high school, beginning shortly after the new decade began in early 2000, I picked up a short-lived nicknamed: The Big B Bruno. This was in no way referencing my weight or size, but simply my passion for writing at the time, and I penned a few essays and short pieces of fiction with this moniker. Later on, at some point in late 2000, this nickname stuck with me on a very personal level, but I immediately shortened it to B3 - the three B's in "The Big B Bruno."

B3 eventually became to stand for so much more than just simply a nickname, all of which would be developed over the next four years of my high school career.


Girls, Girls, Girls, and The One: 2000 - 2001

Above school responsibilities, hunting a job, or getting a car, girls were my priority ever since I entered middle school. This notion - that a girlfriend would be the next major leap in my life - set me on a continuous effort to make real, honest friends of the girls I met and hope for the best. This vaguely-defined "mission" was my very problem. I didn't seek out girls that I had interests in, I simply looked for girls that I found attractive and then I took any form of non-rejection as a positive sign.

So then imagine my shit-as-luck surprise when I met yet another beautiful brunette who actually liked talking back to me. The beautiful cheerleader, the happy-go-lucky girl, the full-spirited and always-smiling Lacey. We talked, we laughed, and come summer 2000, we still talked - over summer break, a time when I usually lost contact with my classmates until the following fall season. This was not just another crush for me, and something began to spark. I changed myself. I wanted to lose weight, to look better. I dieted and I biked. I biked for days, weeks, and months, burning off forty pounds in three months to become the skinny Brandon that I proudly look back on in my high school photos.

During the start of my sophomore year in 2001 I also began to appreciate the differences between people. I learned to tolerate the quirks of my classmates, whether annoying or not. This was ultimately the beginning of my overall tolerance towards the population at large. Racism is stupid, class differentiation is childish, and discrimination is wrong, period. My social experiences in high school really helped me develop this attitude, which I still hold true today.


The Meltdown: 2000 - 2002

While I first learned to appreciate writing during my freshman year of high school, it was my sophomore year in late 2000 and 2001 that I really dug my claws into it. My English teacher that year, the same influential Mr. Weisbrod from my freshman year, helped me to further refine my writing skill. I took his compliments and constructive criticism of my work to heart and worked hard to define how I put words on paper. I put massive effort into my writing assignments, sprinkling my new found love for wit in words with visual creativity whenever I could get away with it. The results were awesome, especially as I dove into movie/music reviews and original creative pieces for my English class that year.

Throughout my sophomore year and into my junior year of high school I let writing overtake me. I dug myself into my biggest writing project of the time: Meltdown: A Survivors' Story. A sci-fi drama tale of six teenagers surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. I drafted countless versions of the story, crafted grand plans for where I wanted the story to go, and considered creating a huge series from the drafts I wrote in 2001 and 2002.

Not surprisingly, thanks to his honesty, it was Mr. Weisbrod who jolted my teenager dreams of publishing and riches back to reality. Meltdown sucked to a considerable degree; rough characters, convoluted story, and sloppy, often unnecessary paragraphs of exposition. While I was rather disenchanted at the time, I later used this event as a means to make an important decision about college later on: I wanted to sharpen my writing skills, and I took up creative writing in college at BGSU.


Gaming Cubed: 2001

As a gamer I tend to keep up with the gaming industry as a whole. Come 1999, with rumors of a new Nintendo console entering development, I almost made it my full-time job to watch my usual news channels (at the time, IGN and Daily Radar) for any bit of information I could get about this mystery console. By 2001 it was well known that Nintendo's GameCube was coming out, and the $200 console was my dream machine. Of course, I did not have a job nor much money at the time, but I still waited patiently and planned to buy one somehow come November of 2001.

My best friend of the time, Brent, agreed to buy my GameCube and one game. At four in the morning on launch day, with great anticipation and anxiety about store supplies of the console, we headed up to a Best Buy in Toledo. The morning was cold and foggy, and while my mom and Brent slept in the car, I fogged up the car windows with anticipation for the store opening.

Come 8am, without the store yet open, we learned that KMart just down the road was already open and selling GameCubes (plenty in stock, too) as of 7am. Oops.


Meijer: 2001 - 2002

As where my peers at school spent their afternoons and weekend working part time jobs to bring in their first dollars, I opted to stay at home to relax, focus on school work, or just be me. This became a problem as high school went on - not to mention I had a $250 debt to pay off to Brent - so in the early months of my sophomore year I began the nerve-wracking process of filling out job applications at various places around BG. I rarely asked if a place was hiring, I simply asked for an application and went on my way, returning a week or more later with all the details filled out. Then I waited for the phone calls.

I applied at several places around Bowling Green, but ultimately ended up with several interviews and eventually a job at the Meijer. I began as a utility work doing 6pm to 11pm shifts a few nights a week, which I almost always spent outside pushing carts. Between pushing carts, bagging, and cleaning, pushing carts eventually became my favorite activity. This let me get a lot of exercise to compliment my biking and spend plenty of time thinking about my day or week as a whole. I met a lot of great people at Meijer, but it wouldn't be until I was a senior in high school that my Meijer career would really take off.

My job at Meijer only supposed to be a means for me to pay Brent back for the GameCube he bought me. I had no idea how important Meijer would end up becoming to me. I paid him back fully in 2002, six years before I would finally leave Meijer.


Sex Squared: 2002

Girls were important to me in high school. Yes, there was one in particular, but my mind was generally stuck on girls in general. "Sex" was the word of the era. My teenage hormones finally caught up with me during my junior year of high school, and while I resisted the urge to consider myself obsessed with sex, there was no denying it: I was sex-crazed. While I had all the heart in the world for one girl, I was really ready to take a spin with any girl. It was tormenting on a daily basis sometimes; an unexplainable urge to do unmentionable things took over my wandering mind at the most inopportune times throughout my days at school. Awkward.

Many of my classes devolved from a proper lecture to endless daydreaming about sex, which really ate into my attention span for most of my classes.


Unforeseen Consequences: 2002 - 2003

Senioritis was in full-effect as I entered my senior year of high school. I was quite lazy with my school work since everything about it was routine at this point, so I instead began to focus on my future. I chose a college (BGSU), took the ACT test (passed with an above-average score), and sort-of chose a major (Undecided). While I looking forward to my future academic career, I also took some time to re-examine my social life at the time. After three years of "pursuing" Lacey I backed off a bit and made a few new close friends, one of which stuck out to me above the others, and she would end up becoming my first girlfriend.

I did not approach my first girlfriend, but rather, she approached me and showed the first interest. This was a major pull away from Lacey at the time, and this short-lived but pleasantly surprising time taught me a lot about relationships from the get-go. After just a month we broke up for reasons I can not recall, but several months later, in the middle of a cold Feburary night, I finally had sex for my first time with the same girl. Today the act might read something like "Achievement Unlocked: Virginity Lost," but the event really did mean quite a bit to me at the time. Despite being everything awkward about "first times" I came away feeling like a new person.

As graduation drew closer, as winter turned to spring, I returned my attention to Lacey, and in one of my biggest mistakes ever, lied to her bold-faced for a month about the loss of my virginity. It seems Lacey assumed her and I were closer than I anticipated at the time, and this mistake would come to haunt me for the rest of my life.

By the time graduation came around in June of 2003 I had accomplished quite a bit from my "to do" list in high school. I had my first girlfriend, had sex for my first time, met a ton of great new friends, and had a great college career ahead of me. Upon graduation that June I had a pretty damn good idea of what B3 was: he was the definition of the new person I had become in those past four years. B3 stood for every experience, every mistake, and every lesson learned all throughout my high school career. B3 was a writer, an element of change, a biker, a friendly guy, a gamer, an imperfect human-being, and everything that I wasn't before I entered high school.

The Road Not Taken: 2003

The summer after high school graduation was quite interesting for me. My relationship with Lacey grew amazingly close, even physical at times, and it was clear to me that we were heading towards something special - the girl I loved was ready to love me back. But alas, she was leaving for special schooling for a month in Florida. A month without Lacey? Blasphemy! What resulted was an overload for me: I would have rather been without Lacey forever than be lost without her for a month. My overly-dramatic high school emotions were still at play, so I cast her aside beginning in August of 2003. I went totally cold-turkey.

This was fine for me at first, as I had plenty of other great friends from all different directions. I started my freshman semester at BGSU and found a lot to love about college. My career at Meijer was going in all great directions as I took a job as a Systems Monitor, a casually-cool job that let me meet lots of new people and dig my claws into the inner-workings of the retail store. About this time I also found a whole new group of close friends from Meijer: Jamie, Ashley, Brittany, and several others. These were my peeps. The latter, Brittany, caught my eye in ways that no one since Lacey had in 2000.

Brittany and I were both as friendly as could be with one another, and I found myself growing as close to her as I did Lacey. My best memories from my first semester of college had nothing to do with BGSU and everything to do with all of the time I spent with Brittany and my other Meijer friends. Weekly bowling trips to Al-Mar Lanes, endless gaming nights, and drinks at B-Dubs are just a few of the fondest memories I have from this time and with these friends.

Despite being so close with Brittany during this time and having such a blast with my friends, my heart was set on something else, and I soon decided to pursue what I was missing rather than what I had. This was one of those great "what if" moments in my life; What if I had stuck by Brittany instead of turning back to Lacey? I gave up so much potential with one girl in order to entertain one of my greatest dreams with another...

A Dream Come True: 2004 - 2005

Come the new year of 2004 I was beginning to find myself stressed by the lack of Lacey in my life. Sometime in late January I rekindled my communications with Lacey, and we talked again as friends. Within a month, however, it was clear that I was mistaken to ignore her for such a long while, and we immediately dove into an official relationship. It was as if we never parted ways. I was with the girl of my dreams after so many years. My high school sweetheart was my first love, plain and simple. As a couple we kept busy; we visited Los Angeles over our first college spring break, settled into daily and weekly routines that kept us intertwined, and in general made the most of our free time together.

I experienced many "firsts" with Lacey during our time together, some as innocent as her introducing me to Taco Bell, and others not quite so innocent. We spent a good chunk of our college careers with one another, and having such a wonderful best friend and girlfriend throughout college made my time at BGSU wonderful.

Happiness requires work, however, and laziness lead to problems. Over-indulgence in ourselves also took a toll on our patience, and after a year and a half we fell apart and moved on. The break up was not in my favor, so I took it rather hard at first and definitely learned a lot about myself and did the whole "what went wrong" thing for a while.

While my social life was all over the map at this point, I did manage to get my college career under control. I had settled on a major, computer science, and an accompanying minor, creative writing. This mix of studies allowed me to take a wide variety of classes, which I greatly enjoyed.

With the decade half over I reflected on my past and began to understand how much I changed in just five years. I made some pretty big decisions, learned from a few mistakes, and accomplished quite a bit academically (started college) and personally (girlfriends, writing). In 2005 I started a new blog and hastily called it "Critically Correct," written by B3, of course.

The Return of the Gamer: 2005 - 2006

As I became a social creature in college I spent more time with friends and less time with my former love, video games. I grew up as a gamer but cast games aside as I spent my nights and weekends with friends. While I considered myself a gamer, I also figured that my waning interest was part of growing up.

Lacey and I stuck by each other pretty closely for a while after our breakup, but by late 2006 we had drifted apart by her wishes. During this time I became a bit irrational, maybe a bit of a pain in the ass for her, but I eventually found my peace by returning to video games. One game in particular, Guitar Hero II, reaffirmed my love of games. I got so intensely involved in the game, so enamored by it, that I forgot what it meant to be unhappy. Without a doubt, GH2 was a return to form for me, a gamer finally realizing that he was too far removed from his roots. Gaming was once again my solace, and I was able to put Lacey behind me once and for all.

Right as I made this jump back into gaming in late 2006, I also met a new friend. During my time at BGSU I crossed eyes and paths with many attractive women, but one stuck out to me for reasons I never quite understood. Was it her impressively long hair, her plain-but-promising good looks, or her tendency to glance back at me when we shared the same room in the student union? Something in me felt compelled to meet her, but I never made the effort until I learned that we shared a common friend. I took the opportunity to introduce myself as soon as I could. Her name was Colleen.

Down to Business: 2007 - 2008

My original four-year graduation date at BGSU was set as the spring of 2007. By 2005 I was well aware that I was not going to hit this target, so I re-planned the rest of my time at BGSU and settled on a spring 2008 graduation date. With a graduation goal in mind I laid low, busted my ass, and gave all my attention to school. I was not particularly fond of the workload or the time I needed to devote to BGSU, but I was also tired of questioning when I was actually going to graduate.

I was taking only core-classes by this time, so I was highly interested in my classes, which helped me pay attention and work on improving my grades. One of my most interesting classes during this period were my English classes. I took three separate classes over three semesters that all shared one common instructor, Mr. Coates. Much like Mr. Weisbrod from my high school days, Mr. Coates' extensive knowledge of fiction and extremely productive feedback helped to shape my writing skills again. I took this opportunity to revise my own expectations for my fiction. In particular I moved away from the whimsical and began to focus on creating interesting, worthwhile characters that my readers might connect and relate. From this, several writing projects were born or reborn, including "Minor Thirsts," "Event Horizon," and "Almost Home."

At the end of 2007, after a solid year of growing close to Colleen as friends, we became something more and decided just before the new year to become an official couple. We hit things off right away and learned to read each other with amazing ease. Although we traveled less than Lacey and I did, I found plenty to like in my new relationship, particularly as Colleen taught me the entertainment value of "randomness."

To Infinity...: 2008

Spring of 2008 saw my final semester at BGSU wind down on quite a lonely note. With the final months of my time at BGSU being more of a formality than not, I made Meijer the focus of my daily and weekly life. I was out of the Systems Department by now, working in Grocery as a pricing team member near full-time. I met a rash of new people of all ages and from many different socioeconomic backgrounds. I would like to think that this variety of people in my daily life helped me learn to better respect and tolerate people as a whole.

Graduation was a meaningful event for me. For twenty-three years I considered myself a child and a student, nothing more. With college behind me and my educational career a success, I was finally an adult. Despite putting four hard years of work into high school and five harder years into college, the hardest was yet to come.

The summer of 2008 was hot, but I spent all of it at Meijer, working my comfortable grocery job day in and day out. In my free hours I tweaked my resume, poked around for available jobs, and conducted several interviews throughout the state of Ohio. By August I was beginning to become a bit dismayed by the job search, having been turned down by two high-profile companies. It was my mom who brought to my attention a job opening in Findlay, OH. This job, by description, was a perfect for me: small company, comfortable atmosphere, and opportunity for learning and advancement. I took the job without hesitation.

...And Beyond: 2009

Come 2009 I was settled into my new job. I have learned a lot about how office culture can be run, but the details do not necessarily need be shared; "Office Space" and "The Office" pretty much nail it on the head.

One of my greatest annoyances by this time was the 45 minute, thirty-three mile one-way commute to work that I had to make between Haskins and Findlay. I knew that my next major goal would be to move out of my parent's house and down to Findlay before the beginning of winter that year. Near the end of summer I began to do just that, with apartment hunting lasting about a month before settling on Sandusky Square Apartments. I moved in the week of my birthday, and everything has been different since. In short, I immediately loved living by myself, and even as I wrap up 2009, I can see myself living here for quite some time to come.

The Here and Now: 2010

Ten years represents a significant portion of my life, nearly half at this point. What will the next ten years hold for me? What will be the next big influence on my B3 persona? What will I make of my programming career and my creative writing interests?

Looking ahead, there are more questions than answers, but if the last ten years are any indication, my options are limitless.

I can not wait for the next ten.

Surrender, Surrender

With the new year coming up, I am beginning to wonder if the B3 of old is dead. Just where do I stand? What kind of person am I? Where am I going and what do I have to do to get there?

Pardon me for a moment while I step outside of the usual techno-babble of Critically Correct and instead babble about myself.

What have I traditionally been? The label B3 has always stood for many things, but generally it has been a way of defining myself: I am a nice person, a goal-oriented person, a productive person. I love writing, biking, cooking, and tearing down every aspect of my daily life for analyzing. I am a creative person, an active person, and above so many things, a social person.

Since I have moved out on my own, very few of these things have stuck with me. I have the urge to write, but when I sit down nothing comes out. I wish I could bike or be active, but when it comes down to it, I am too tired or the weather too cold. I have my own kitchen and all the time I need, but I find microwave food to be much easier than cooking a meal. Am I still creative? I'm not sure; I sure as hell don't feel creative lately. I'm lazy, I like my alone time, and being social is getting harder and harder for me. What a rut I'm in, eh?

Remember that Reboot Weekend I needed way back in September? I never did get around to that, and I'm really feeling the pinch now. If 2010 - and the next decade - start off as bad as 2009 is ending, I may be setting myself up for a very bad future. I need to either get back on track or redefine what defines me.

With a long and silent sigh, B3 out.

Overview of the Asus UL30A-X5 Laptop

While there has been lots of chatter online about the Asus UL30 and UL20 laptop line, there has been very little talk of the very laptop model that I have had my eye on, the UL30A-X5. Not anymore.

The Asus UL30A-X5 is similiar in chassis design as the UL30A-A1, the "flagship" model in the 13.3-inch series. With the same dimensions, the same aluminum lid over the LCD panel, the same keyboard, the same port selection, and the same hardware specs (centered around an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor), what sets this model apart from the UL30-A1?

Case color, battery life, and price. That's it.

The most obvious difference from the UL30-A1 is the color of the case. As where the A1 features a design very similar to Apple's Macbook line, with a silver body and black island-style keyboard, the X5 is simply black all around; case, keyboard, and all. The body is mostly a matte-style plastic with a solid feel and no obvious flex. The inner plastic around the keyboard and LCD bezel is glossy black, which can be a little distracting under bright light but not terribly so. The aluminum lid is the same as the A1, so no comment there. The all-black look is sleek and trimming, just like it should be.

As where the A1 features a battery advertised to last up to 12 hours (and largely averaging between 6 and 10 hours in online reviews), the X5 has a smaller-capacity battery, but not but much. The A1's battery (8-cell, 5600 mAh) is similar to the X5 battery (8-cell, 4400 mAh), but despite the smaller capacity I have been getting fantastic battery life out of the X5 thus far. I have been seeing 8 to 9 hours of web-browsing use out of the machine, which is fantastic for such a light computer. I have yet to do any extensive battery-drain tests, but I would estimate 5 to 9 hours of use per charge overall depending on the usual factors of use, screen brightness, and Wi-Fi usage. (My source for some of these numbers: Amazon discussion page.)

Finally, price. For a flagship model, the A1 has an MSRP of $799. An $800 thin-and-light laptop seems too good to be true, but just as netbooks did in 2007, sub-$1000 thin-and-lights like this line seem hell-bent on redefining the market's expectations. This is even more true of the X5, as it retails for $699 but can usually be found for less online. Amazon routinely sells the X5 for $649, for example. At this price, even with a lower-capacity battery than the A1, the X5 is a great value.

I personally love the sleek, all-black look, and the lower-capacity battery still gets a minimum of 5 or 6 hours, something that I cannot complain about. The entire Asus UL30A line (and the similar UL20A line) seem to redefine the concept of "budget thin-and-light," and no more is that apparent than with the X5, a perfect balance of size, performance, and price.

Rather than regurgitate all the detailed spec information on this laptop, I will say this: Visit this page at CNet for an overview of the UL30A-A1 model. The internal and external specs are the same as the X5, save for the color and battery differences I pointed out in this article.

If anyone has any questions about my experiences with the X5, feel free to contact me via the usual channels or leave a comment below.

B3 out.

A Break Well Deserved

A recap of my awesome Thanksgiving holiday break:

• The movie adaptation of The Road was released nationwide last Wednesday, and I was looking forward to rushing home after work to see it. Lo-and-behold, Toledo is lame once again: no theaters in the area are showing the film, so I spent my Wednesday night catching up on Mario Kart and a few other Wii favorites.

• Thursday was just as I expected it to be. I slept in for a change without an alarm, although I was awoken by the jumping of Elli on me. My sister and her boyfriend stayed the night as well, so I was regulated to the couch the Wednesday night. Thanksgiving was in Weston again, and just as it has been for the last five years, my family is slowly getting smaller and smaller. It was our smallest, quickest Thanksgiving yet.

• Friday was a solid day as well. I started the day early with a 6 or 7 mile walk through Oak Openings with Colleen. I am using Oak Openings as a training ground to prepare myself for a section-hike on the Appalachian Trail in the spring, so I'm glad to finally be pushing longer walks out of myself.

• The rest of Fridayand Saturday was mostly spent with my family, which quite honestly bored me to death after a while. I enjoy alone time in my apartment, so I was eager to get home. I left Saturday night for Findlay, but not before making a pit-stop to pick up a couple of free televisions, one of which has literally changed my life in Findlay...

• ... Because I can finally play low-end Wii games and Rock Band 2 again! After spending more than $600 on a new 40" HDTV I was rather upset to see that the input lag on it was enough to prevent me from playing time-sensitive games (a la Rock Band!) and older 480i games like Super Mario World. Of all people, Lacey was able to help me get two televisions, one an old 19" CRT and the other a low-resolution 20" LCD TV from Meijer. Amazingly the cheapo Meijer-brand LCD TV is perfect for my Wii. A pixel-perfect 640 x 480 progressive image and zero input lag. I could not ask for a better television for my living room. I will be rocking out all week with all the new music that I missed from Rock Band in the past two months. Again, THANK YOU LACEY!

• Sunday has been all about games. I was not quite sure what my schedule was going to be, but I did spend much of the day getting familiar with a bunch of new games I bought cheap on Steam. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Far Cry 2 were my first buys, and I've played the hell out of them. Both games are solid, AAA-titles that impress the hell out of me, so it will be hard going to work tomorrow. Steam has two days of deals left, so I could have even more games to check out. Yikes.

• Oh, and I'm talking to Lacey on a regular basis again, which has been a pleasant surprise to my Thanksgiving break.

Was this year's Thanksgiving Break a good one? Oh hell yes it was. I'm all smiles going into Monday.

B3 out.

Ursa Major Review

Third Eye Blind wants you to forget that it's 2009. Their new album, Ursa Major, reminisces back to the decade that put Third Eye Blind on the map - the late 1990's. Shave ten years of musical evolution from your expectations and Ursa Major is easily one of 3EB's best albums.

Stephan Jenkins and company bring back the pop-rock bump-beats and quasi-rap lyrics that made "Semi-Charmed Life" the song of the 90's to beat. They don't come anywhere close to unseating their debut masterpiece; however, they don't disappoint either. Ursa Major opens with "Can You Take Me," a song that is unmistakably 3EB, a solid trip of drums, crunchy guitar riffs and Jenkin singing about lusting for better times. In a way this sums up the entire album: a band reflecting on the best days of their lives - long behind them. Still, "Sharp Knife" shows true sincerity, "One In Ten" is more melodic than usual for 3EB, and "Summer Town" features some of 3EB's trademark rock-rap sound that was clearly borne from their 90's successes.

Ursa Major sure seems familiar, but it is a comfortable familiar for fans of 3EB. Fans who fell off the Third Eye Blind wagon during their 6-year hiatus may find not find enough here to bring them back, but everyone else should put there lives on hold and hearken back to the 90's for a while.

B3 out.

I'm Coming Back Down

"Love and hate, get it wrong.
She cut me right back down to size.
Sleep the day, let it fade,
Who was there to take your place?
No one knows, never will,
Mostly me, but mostly you.
What do you say, do you do,
When it all comes down?

'Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud.
It's taken me all this time to find out what I need."

Comedown by Bush

The B3 Backstory Launches

I have a new project that I am very proud to launch tonight.

The B3 Backstory is just what it sounds like - my life story thus far, told blog-style. I have launched a new site just for this writing project, and I encourage you to check it out when you have time.

Quite simply, The B3 Backstory (or B3B as I will abbreviate it quite often) is a blog featuring snippets of my autobiography. It will be told with short anecdotes, short stories, partial fiction shorts, pictures, Facebook integration - essentially, any creative means that I feel is worthwhile.

I have written a brief introduction over on the new site, so please, go check it out.

The B3 Backstory
http://b3backstory.blogspot.com/

B3 out.

Torchlight Review

I have generally considered myself a "core gamer" - one who keeps up with the gaming industry and participates in the best of the best in gaming every year, or at least when I can afford the time and money. With more of my life shifting away from video games in favor of my job and other responsibilities, I find gaming to be a casual activity more often than not. The Wii hit the market at just the right time for me, as it allowed me to experience level of casual gaming that hit the mark for me.

Although I have strayed away a bit from my hardcore gaming roots, I sometimes stumble upon a game that really hits home and reminds me why I play games in the first place. Guitar Hero II is a classic example of this, with Rock Band 2 last year building on my new rhythm-game obsession. Two games this year so far have caught my eye in much the same way as Rock Band 2 has. The Witcher finally came into my life and has proved to be one of the best mature games I have played in years, but it is the second game that really grabbed my attention and refused to let go.

Torchlight.

Built by a team consisting of former Diablo designers, Torchlight's heritage was obvious from the moment I started playing it. Almost every aspect of the game oozes influence from the classic hack and slash and modern MMORPGs, particularly the ones designed by - you guessed it - Blizzard. Diablo-style story and dungeons, WoW-style item-types and skill trees, and loot out the ass. Lots of loot.

That is really what Torchlight is about: full-on, balls-out dungeon crawling and item collection. The action is paced well, the bosses are plentiful, and the loot is great. Leveling happens frequently and rare items are just plentiful enough to make all the monsters worth wading through.

With hundreds of spells, thousands of items to collect, armor and weapons to equip, and even a few unique wrinkles to the genre, Torchlight easily satifies the modern-day dungeon crawler twitch, and does so without breaking the bank at just a $20 purchase. A must buy for any point-and-click fan.

B3 out.

An Idea, a Thought, a Possibility

While driving from Findlay to my parents house tonight, I had a thought, an idea, even.

What would happen if I combined my love of writing with my natural tendency to reflect on my past while trying to grow more outward in the future by learning from my past? I think I would get a sort of autobiographical story. In a blog format, perhaps?

I'm mulling over the possibility, but I think I might introduce a sort-of history lesson into all that is B3, starting with my earliest memories and sporadically moving forward into my future. Short re-tellings of the most memorable moments of my life might prove to be wonderful writing exercise for me and reading experiences for you. I will see what I can do.

B3 out.

Why I Haven't Blogged In A While

I have not blogged in a while, and I think I finally have a good reason as to why. One word can explain:

Facebook.

I knew all along this year that I would be moving to Findlay, it was just a matter of when. I also knew that once I moved to Findlay, I would let Critically Correct become a focus in my life, a way for my friends and family to keep up with how I am doing on my own. Of course, Critically Correct has seemingly died since I moved to Findlay.

In short, Facebook has been such a great tool for keeping in touch with all my friends, both close and not-so-close, that I hardly find the need to blog. So with that said, what should the focus of Critically Correct be?

I really don't know. B3 out.

New Old Pics on Facebook

I recently unearthed some amazingly old digital pics from my high school days, and I have posted the best of them on Facebook.

Check them out. They are very nostalgic for me.

B3 out.

A Little Bit of Irony

I desperately want to get away from computers, but I don't know where to begin.

Leaving Something Behind

I'm enjoying my time in Findlay.

That pretty much sums up my life right now. Work, home, work, home. Repeat again and again. I play games, I watch TV, and I work. This is pretty much the laziest period of my life, and I hope I get out of it soon, cause it is driving me nuts.

I have yet to discover a comfortable place in Findlay outside of my apartment. BG was a bounty of comfort - any given building in downtown BG had a place to escape: Nellie's Deli, Dairy Queen, Jed's, Grounds for Thought, hell, even the sidewalk benches are a relaxing place to chill. BG is a great balance of size and population. There is just enough space to be comfortable and just enough people (especially with college in session) to meet lots of new faces.

I love curling up in downtown BG with my laptop and an appetite, not to mention a craving for a Qdoba burrito or hot chocolate or ice cream. A perfect place.

Does anyone know where this kind of place might be in Findlay? I haven't found it yet.

B3 out.

Maybe Offline?

I'm in the middle of transferring my domain name, brandonbrun.com, over to a new provider, so I might be offline for a day or so. Direct access to Critically Correct is always available by using the Blogger address: bmbruno.blogspot.com

B3 out.

NW Ohio Or Smoky Mountains

I wish I could put how I have been feeling lately into words. I find it very hard to sit down and write anything meaningful as of late, whether it be fiction, blog, or code. Do not get me wrong, I have the motivation and the need to write, but sitting down in front of my computer to get anything done is difficult. Perhaps that is why I am babbling like this: right now any writing feels good, even if it is pointless babble.

I do have this to share, though:

Last January I visited Side Cut Metropark and immediately fell in love with it. From then until two weeks ago when I moved to Findlay, I made weekly visits to Side Cut. I made it my place of escape, a place for me to get away from my normal, daily life and peacefully spend time alone to discover myself.

As fall gives way to winter this year I turn my interest to a new playground of discovery: Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. While I have been talking about moving into the Oak Openings region as an upgrade to Side Cut, it was not until this weekend that I went for my first time since I was about six years old. I spent part of Saturday with my family leisurely walking around a couple trails, and it was quite beautiful, especially at this time of the year.

While Oak Openings Preserve has access to a wide variety of plants and animals to see and miles of trails to explore, there is one particular path through the park that I am the most interested in: the Oak Openings Hiking Trail (otherwise known as the Scout Trail). This is a 16-ish mile primitive hiking trail that more or less runs around the outer perimeter of the park. The key word is "hiking," because I see this as a good opportunity to begin my long-distance hiking practice for my return trip to the Smoky Mountains in 2010. While I have mastered every square inch of Sidecut Metropark, the scale of those trails and exploration pales in comparison to Oak Openings.

Thus, beginning next weekend I will begin a series of weekly trips to Oak Openings Preserve to tackle and practice hiking the O.O. Hiking Trail. I do not intend to do all 16 miles in one day on my first weekend, but definitely by the end of the year I intend for the 16 mile hike to be a breeze for me.

I will very likely try to liven up Critically Correct with some pictures and stories from my time spent hiking in Oak Openings Preserve. Until then, B3 out.

Welcome Home

I am now settled comfortably into my apartment in Findlay. For those people whom I don't see very often or are no longer within easy access, I hope that Critically Correct can be an outlet for me to share how things are going for me.

In general, I'm finding my new apartment awesome. Space is limited, which forces me to be conservative and realistic - exactly the qualities I developed in college and hoped to take into my daily life. I found out that I really enjoy shopping for food. In my first two weeks I have been grocery shopping three times, and I have been experimenting with filling up my kitchen in various ways. I made getting Internet service and television service set up a priority, and I have both, so far with spectacular results (AT&T U-Verse, actually).

The biggest benefit to me living in Findlay - a short drive to work - has already been paying off handsomely. I get home from work shortly after five and get the night to myself, usually until 11pm or so. The extra two hours of freedom have been put to good use so far with daily exercise and extra time organizing a new daily and weekly routine. Hopefully I'll have an update on that soon.

Anywho, I'm off to bed. Got a lot on my plate at work lately, and a solid night's sleep will be appreciated.

B3 out.

The Almost Vacation

As my vacation from work comes to a close this weekend, I reflect on what has been a long week and these are a few things that stand out to me:

• Games, games, and more games. It has been a while since I have been able to sit down with a good stack of video games and get lost, but when I was not on the road this was exactly what I did. I caught up with a few Wii games, played some old classics on my PC, and got tons of WoW time clocked in throughout the week. I am just about exhausted of video games for a while, but it was nice to get it all out of my system at once.

• I took a bit of time to work on my writing for a change. Not any one story specifically, but I did some writing exercises and did some storyboarding-type diagramming for a few other story ideas I have floating around my head.

• I took up teaching myself PHP, particularly in a WAMP stack. This is mainly as a means to learn the technology of PHP for my personal gain, as once I get the money I need, I plan to set up a personal web server at my apartment to use for file hosting and small website projects.

• This weekend yet I have a lot going on: a trip to Sandusky for dinner with my family on Saturday and the Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival on Sunday. Both should be really great times, particularly the festival.

This Sunday I will also move the last of my things to Findlay, which means this week kicks off my first full-time week living in Findlay. I can't wait for this - I'm really genuinely excited about living on my own (the AT&T TV service and high-speed internet helps!).

I also took some time to re-align how I prioritize my responsibilities at work, so going back into work next week will see me putting in lots of extra hours to get caught up, as if I never went on vacation. The time off has helped me recharge from the CRI burnout that I experienced in August and September. It should be an interesting week.

Now it's time to get this long weekend started. B3 out.

The Yearly Routine

I woke up today on my 25th birthday and this is how I felt: not quite old.

Twenty-five seems like a significant number in terms of a human life. A third. That is, a third of my life is over with. Seems kind of strange to me. But still, here I am.

I'm not exactly sure how I will be spending my birthday. I always spend it alone so I can make it a day of reflection, something that I find to be impossible with friends around me. I'm very likely going to be spending the day outside with Elli at a park or simply in my own backyard.

A little preview of where my mind will be wandering today:

• Four years ago I learned what real, honest heartbreak felt like.
• Nine years ago I met a few of the most influential people in my life.
• Ten years ago I began the ninth grade, which was the beginning of the best four years of my life that I can hardly remember anymore.
• Thirteen years ago I opened one of the best presents ever: my Nintendo 64, which firmly established my love of gaming and got me lost in some of the best games I've ever played.

I have a lot to do today for a day where I do nothing.

B3 out.

Soon Enough...

And lo, how the mighty have fallen.

The Beginning of the End

While I have not had much desire to write lately, I simply also have not had the time to write. Tonight I found a few minutes to do so, and here I am.

I move out in two days. The full impact of this has not quite hit me yet. I have not been nervous about it by any means, and thus far this week has simply felt like a routine cleaning of my bedroom. As I look around my room now, boxes stacked to my waist, I try hard to picture myself not calling my parent's house home.

At some point I'm sure I will be overtaken by emotion as I realize I will not be coming home to this place every day. Hopefully that happens before Sunday, because if it hits after I move out I won't have any way to cope.

B3 out.

Moving On and Moving Out

It is time.

For countless years I have been wondering what it will be like to live on my own, and while I have been late to this party compared to many of my friends, I am finally making the move to Findlay.

I was not expecting my search for an apartment to go so quickly or so smoothly, but it did. After less than two weeks of searching I found a great little place at Sandusky Square, exactly one mile from downtown Findlay where I work. This is amazing. If I only drove to work and back four days a week (remember I work at home one day) and the to the grocery store once per week, I would theoretically need gas in my car once every three weeks, if that. Living so close to a city also lets me do things I never could near Haskins: immediately partake in downtown activities, visit resturants on foot, and generally experience a small-scale downtown lifestyle like I never have been able.

More than a new location, I'm looking forward to getting comfortable in my own space. With great new freedoms in my apartment comes much greater responsibility, particularly with regards to financial well-being and how I balance my free time. I expect to have lots more free time in my new place; this is mainly from not having to drive two hours every day.

I'm moving September 27th. I will definitely be back on Critically Correct after that, and I expect Critically Correct will become a very active way for me to keep up with all my friends and family. Lots of cool stuff coming up on the horizon. Stay tuned!

B3 out.

Great New Music

Thanks to Last.fm, I've fallen in love with a lot of great new music lately.

A few of my favorite tracks:

Raine Maida - "Yellow Brick Road" (Last.fm Page)
Silvertide - "Blue Jeans" (Last.fm Page)
Stereoside - "Sinner" (YouTube video; link may die in the future)
Breaking Point - "Goodbye to You" (Last.fm Page)

I downloaded the first three songs recently, and Breaking Point's Beautiful Disorder album. Amazing new music for me to sink my ears into this fall. Check'em out.

B3 out.

Bye Bye Summer, Hello Busy Fall

While I usually tend to think of the end of September or early October as the end of summer, the weather here lately has reminded me that the warm comfort of summer is nearing an end. Even more-so than the weather is my calendar, which if everything holds steady, I will have something going on every weekend between now and November. Once November gets here? Well, it will be time for the holidays.

Fall is always a busy time it seems, and this fall will be no different. As far as I'm concerned, my fall season begins next weekend. The rest of my 2009 is pretty much mapped out, and it looks something like this:

Weekend of September 4th

This weekend is quite a kick-off to the fall season for me. I have a hog roast on Saturday which I'm looking forward to quite a bit. From what I hear it is quite a big deal.

That Sunday I will be hanging out at the Fulton County Fair, one of my favorite local fairs. It will be my last chance to indulge in my favorite greasy treats.

Weekend of September 11th

All three days of this weekend features the Black Swamp Arts Festival, of which I'm planning to go to all day Saturday with a variety of friends. Saturday evening I also have a benefit dinner for my cousin, who is in the hospital at the time of this writing. After dinner I intend to return to downtown BG for drinks, music, and great times at the festival.

Weekend of September 18th

This weekend is going to be a good one. First off, two major games will be released on September 15th - Scribblenauts for the NDS and Batman: Arkham Asylum for Steam on the PC. I intend to spend the first half of this weekend gaming my heart out with what I think will be two solid games.

That Sunday will be spent at Cedar Point with some out-of-town friends, Jason and Melissa. I love their yearly visit to Ohio.

Weekend of September 25th

Roche de Bout Festival is this Saturday. The yearly festival that is closest to my house, I find Waterville's Roche de Bout Festival to be very relaxing - by no means overwhelmingly huge and annoying, but not small enough to becoming boring too fast. Even better, Colleen's family makes setting up a little "homebase" convenient, and I get to bring Elli too. What more can I ask for in local, easy fun?

Weekend of October 2nd

If all goes to plan, this weekend kicks off a week-long vacation off work. I. Can't. Wait.

I'm also tentatively planning to make a trip to Gatlinburg, TN beginning Friday the second and staying into Monday the 5th. This trip is highly up-in-the-air, so I can not say much about it now.

But either way, my 25th birthday is that Sunday, October 4th, so either way I will be doing something amazing this weekend (except for Sunday, of course, as I spend my birthday alone for personal reasons). With a week off work, the possibilities seems endless for this weekend, so I will have to see what rolls.

Weekend of October 11th

Another of my favorite festivals falls on this Sunday, the Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival. A huge festival with thousands of people, long lines, but plenty of good food and top-rate entertainment to match. A day-long commitment for sure, but an absolute blast every step of the way.

Weekend of October 16th

Finally, things start to wind down. I don't have anything explicitely planned for this weekend, but I will say this: I'm on track with a goal to move out of my house and get settled into Findlay sometime in October, so if I'm able to I will definitely use this weekend for that purpose, whether it's moving my belongings or simply organizing for a move at some nearby time.

Weekend of October 23rd

While the core of this weekend will be mostly quiet, I am expecting an extended three-day weekend with a concert that Monday, October 26th: SSPU, again. I saw them and loved them in Columbus, and I love the Headliner's venue in Toledo, so this will be a very good combination for a concert.

And everything else...

And the following weekend will be... November, just in time for the holiday season to get started for me. If nothing else I will be exhausted a lot over the next two months, but with so much going on and so many great times to be had I do not think I will mind a little fatigue for a change.

So with next weekend's hog roast, fall for me will be underway. Bring it on.

B3 out.

Where Did Summer Go?

What's coming up:

• A wonderful weekend spent outside: I'm cooking breakfast Saturday morning over an open fire: eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes if I feel up to it. Looking forward to that unique experience.

• More SSPU. Having finally confirmed that Silversun Pickups will be in Toledo again in October, I'm ordering tickets this weekend to see them for my third time. Bloody awesome. They will now tie Tantric as my most-seen-in-concert group.

• I'm starting work on another essay, and just like "Just a Crush, or True Love? 6," I am revisiting my past work to bring a new perspective on classic themes.

An easy, relaxing weekend all around. I need it.

Reboot Weekend

UPDATE: Scratch that, I forgot I have stuff in Findlay going on Saturday afternoon. Maybe a couple weeks from now? I sure hope so.

This coming weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 28th through August 30th will be a Reboot Weekend for me.

I will be offline (AIM, Facebook, Critically Correct, etc.) and unplugged (no iPod or cell phone) for 60 hours or so.

Just me, myself, and I and probably the peaceful, wonderful outdoors all weekend long. Hopefully I come back into next week a renewed person. I need the break and time off.

I'll be back once more on Friday most likely. Until then, B3 out.

A Random DSi Upgrade

Since it was released earlier this year, the Nintendo DSi has not had a place on my gaming radar. With my iPod touch and a DS Lite serving the forefront of my gaming needs, I found very little reason to upgrade to a DSi.

In fact, without Game Boy Advance games capability, the DSi seems like a big step backward for Nintendo. The DS Lite's biggest strength for me was being able to tow around two games at once - one classic GBA game and one newer DS game. This loss of functionality alone made the DSi a hard sell for me. While the DSi is more Wii-like in its online connectivity (with an online store and internet browser), I have yet to see killer-app software made exclusively for the DSi - something that would force me to buy the hardware.

Instead of an awesome gaming coming along for the DSi, I instead find myself upgrading for a different reason: my DS Lite broke. While technically still functioning, a faulty D-Pad and a cracked hinge finally gave me enough reason to buy a new DS. I sprung for a DSi for no real reason other than I could, and I'm glad I did.

Not even a week old, I have found a new love in my DSi. While I continue to avoid many of my older, well-played DS games, it is the newer functionality of the DSi that I am enjoying.

For one, the hardware isn't that bad. A little thinner than the DS and perhaps a little lighter, it feels great as a tech toy. The larger screens are the same resolution as the DS Lite's which means those 256 x 192 pixels are stretched out quite a bit, making the DSi' screen's a bit pixelated. Still, the larger size is appreciated for my fat fingers. The touch screen seems much more responsive too, closer to an iPod touch than the older DS model.

The internet browser on the DSi is not half bad. While no Mobile Safari, it's fairly capable of handling "Web 1.0" and text-heavy pages, although the screen resolution means you see a very tiny speck of any webpage at once. The camera on the DSi can pretty much suck it: photo quality is on par with a 2000-era cell phone. This is sad, because the ability to instantly post pictures to Facebook is definitely a selling point that perked my interest in the DSi. It will suffice for quick, random snaps.

Thus far, from a hardware persective, the DSi is about what I expected: a marginal upgrade over the DS Lite with a media-heavy focus.

By far my favorite feature of the DSi so far is a free application available from the online store called "Flipnote Studios." This application is the Mario Paint of the new millenium. As where I spent more time on Mario Paint than any other game on the Super Nintendo back in the 90's, I can see myself losing months of my life to Flipnote Studio: it's a quick-sketch notepad that can be "flipped" through to create basic animation. The concept is simple, the idea basic in every way possible, but it has exposed a creative side of me that has been dormant for nearly a decade now. While rudimentary animation is the most likely outcome of my little sketches, I find it useful to storyboard writing ideas, plot points in my fiction, or as a vehicle to express my nearly impossible-to-understand imagination in visual form. In short, I now feel that Flipnote Studios is the reason I bought a Nintendo DSi.

And as long as I'm cranking out little short animations, I'm okay with that.

See some of my work here:

bmbruno on Flipnote Hatena

B3 out.

Priority Mission: The Future

As I approach my one-year anniversary at CRI (really!?), I have been looking back on the last two years of my life: the my final year of college, graduation, my job search, and my growth at work in the past 10 months.

I observe quite a bit. I went from student to professional within just a year's time, yet I still feel as if I have lots of learning and growing to do. With my 25th birthday approaching this year (and statistically, my life roughly one-third complete), I now turn to focus on the next big aspect of my life: my career. While I have been having a great time at CRI thus far, and intend to grow with the company for years to come, I also want to push myself in new ways that CRI does not afford me. While IT is a large part of what my CS degree was intended to be used for, I can't help but dream of learning lots more, particularly real-time applications and web-based platform development.

I intend to do plenty of learning in the next couple of years, both for my job and for myself, and I consider this learning to be of the highest priority for me. Granted, I do have a lot else going on too: moving away from home, balancing my social life, my fiction writing (and all my creative arts, really), and lots of other little things, I am sure. But overall, the most important thing for me now is my career - getting focused, becoming a valuable employee, and getting myself in a position to be successful so that I can be a reliable person - reliable enough to start a family within the next five or ten years.

Am I a little forward-thinking? Yes, definitely. I have a lot to look forward to, but I have to be in the right position to get off the ground with any of this, and there's no better time to start than now.

Reboot Coming Up

With all that has been happening in my life lately, I think I am due for another Reboot Weekend - a wonderful two and a half days of blissful peace for my heavy-burdened mind. Essentially, a weekend to myself. It helps, a lot.

Every so often the little "negatives" in my life add up and really hit me. This weekend has seen many of those surface and collect like honey from a beehive - slowly developing a day at a time until I'm covered in a gelatinous goo that makes me feel lethargic in the worst ways possible.

What especially sucks about this is that I have had so many great things in my life to be positive about. 40 Pounds Down, my six-month plan to lose roughly 40 pounds - has been going far better than I expected. Work has been a little slow lately, but nothing awful, so I'm happy there. I have had to reshift my priorities with some of my old friends, but I've come closer to one, made a new one, and get to start over with another - all fresh faces or new angles on old relationships. But still, why do I feel so bogged down lately?

Well that's the point of my Reboot Weekends - to disconnect from everything I currently know, to break from routine and mix up my life for 48 hours and see what comes of it. This total break lets me consider everything that's been going on in my life without my usual routine getting in the way of this - without seeing anyone, without chatting with anyone, or without video games turning me lazy all weekend long. What do I do then? Usually hike outside all day; hit up the various parks in the region, do experimental creative writing, or just putz around wherever I feel like it. Anything that frees my mind from the usual hum-drum of what's been keeping me down and out.

So, will it be next weekend or the weekend after that? I'm not sure, but with all that's on my mind, it needs to be soon.

B3 out.

Wii Sports Resort Review

Wii Sports was, despite its simple nature, one of the most played games on my Wii, if not the overall most-played game on my Wii. As the Wii's pack-in title, Wii Sports was the best example of how motion control can enhance gaming in 2006, and by many measurements, still is in 2009. While plenty of great games have found a home in my Wii (Tiger Woods '09, Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band 2 being among my favorites), Wii Sports always was the best show-off for just-plain-fun on the Wii.

Wii Sports Resort, a proper sequel, comes along to knock Wii Sports back, and to help show its age, brings along the Wii Motion Plus, a hyper-sensitive accessory that enhances the accuracy of motion and position data reported by the Wii Remote. To be short about this: it works. One-to-one motion control is finally possible on the Wii, and it feels pretty good, but I do have my reservations.

For one - and maybe this is just Nintendo being careful in Wii Sports Resort - there is a need to constantly calibrate the device. Before all of the twelve events in Wii Sports resort, the player is asked to calibrate the Wii Remote by either setting it on a flat, level surface or aiming it at the screen so the sensor bar can do the work. This irritates me, especially because some events - such as swordplay - require fast swipes of the remote and quick button presses, and these motions don't always line up. Wii Motion Plus is accurate for sure, but perhaps a tad bit slow when I wish it were not, and this led to plenty of games that just did not feel quite right.

But without further ado, I will briefly discuss my thoughts about each game in the package.

Swordplay: My favorite game and also the best demonstration of Wii Motion Plus' strengths and weaknesses. Swordplay maps the Wii Remote to a 1:1 sword that follows every twist, thrust, slice, and block that you can manage. This looks and feels great; true motion control. The events are fun, slicing at opponents and blocking in real time with all the proper angles. Skill is involved, and with another human player presents quite a challenge. However, this is the game that demonstrates a weakness of the Wii Motion Plus: it all-too-often becomes disoriented and misaligned, making a quick block difficult when the game thinks your pointing the remote down still but it is really at your side and hasn't caught up yet. This is a rare event, but has still happened enough that I had to mention it, and thus-far hasn't ruined my enjoyment of the coolest sport in the game.

Wakeboarding: Largely forgettable, wakeboarding sees your Mii character gliding left and right on water as you perform stunts while hoping the wake of your boat. Honestly I don't see why this couldn't have been done on the standard Wii Remote: tilt the remote left and right to steer, and shake it to jump on the wave and catch some air, performing a stunt. Nothing more at all.

Frisbee: An oddly-accurate recreation of throwing a frisbee, this sport maps the Wii Remote to your hand holding a frisbee, and tracks every dip and twist of your hand perfectly. Even better, throwing a frisbee feels good, leaving your hands without making you feel cheated. You can angle high and watch the frisbee plop to the ground or aim low and richochet it off the ground. A solid example of what Wii Motion Plus can do without the pitfalls of Swordplay. One of my favorites.

Archery: My second-favorite game to Swordplay, Archery builds a bow and arrow set out of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. With the remote as your bow handle and the Nunchuck as the string, a scary level of accuracy and tracking is on display here. Once you zero in on your distant target and pull back on the Nunchuck, you can see just how sensitive Wii Motion Plus is as the view shakes by the tiny motion of your hands. Letting an arrow rip and hit your target feels as good as Frisbee or Swordplay. Bravo.

Basketball: Another not-so-hot sport, this is another sport that seems like it could have been done without Wii Motion Plus. Just flick the Wii Remote upwards and watch basketballs lob through a net. I'm far better at 3-pointers here than I am in real life, and it feels much too forced in the game. Pass.

Table Tennis: A semi-sequel to Tennis from Wii Sports, Table Tennis can be either very mindless or very accurate. As long as you time your swings right and position them correctly (left or right side of your body), this is a recreation of Wii Tennis. Greater depth does exists, since Wii Motion Plus also measures the speed and angle of your swing, so lobs, slices, and other advanced moves are available via natural motion control. I haven't really gotten the hang of the finer controls yet, so for my this is just a scaled-down version of Wii Tennis.

Golf: Exactly like Golf from Wii Sports with much more sensitive controls, sometimes for the better (great draws and fades) and sometimes for the worse (too easy to draw and fade), so it can be frustrating for casual players. I prefer the swing mechanics of Tiger Woods '09 over this.

Bowling: Plain and simple, exactly like Bowling from Wii Sports with slightly more sensitive controls. Nothing more and still just as fun. I'll take it.

Power Cruising: Power cruising really wants to be Wave Race Wii. With great wave physics and classic slalom gameplay, it's off to a solid start. However, the motion controls really do not do the sport justice. Using a Wii Remote and Nunchuck held in front of you as if they were handlebars, you manuever the watercraft by learning into turns and twisting the Wii Remote for a speed boost. While serviceable for short play sessions, I would hope this sketchy control style is never adopted for a full-fledged game.

Canoeing: This should have been in Wii Fit. Seriously. Canoeing is a major workout, involving thrusting the Wii Remote from side to side as you guide a canoe down a short course. Quite realistic in terms of effort and accurate, and while not necessarily fun, it does provide a satisfying experience and workout. I play it on occasion, but not necessarily as a recommendation.

Cycling: Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Peddle" up and down by shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, then learn with them to turn. Manage stamina, rendered as three on-screen hearts. Not quite an involving game, nor fun to play for me. What the hell, Nintendo?

Air Sports: One of my favorite games solely because it brings back extremely fond memories of Pilotwings 64, one of my all-time favorite games. Indeed, flying around the island in Wii Sports Resort is so similar to Pilotwings that I am now longing for a proper Pilotwings sequel. I have not had a chance to play the two-player "battle" mode that involves popping an opponent balloons, but the challenge sounds reasonable enough and the mechanic is simple enough for anyone to pick up. Love it.

And there you have it - my take on Wii Sports Resort. While not perfect by any means, this is definitely a worthy follow-up to Wii Sports, and I feel every Wii own should pick this up. Wii Motion Plus is positively the future of the Wii, and this game teases the future very well.

B3 out.

Define "Change"

Ask a friend to define what "change" is. Change is such a loaded word.

While change can be used to describe coins leftover after breaking a dollar, or used to describe how you put on new clothes, change for me means something much, much more valuable.

I define change from the perspective of a fiction writer, and as a fiction writer, change is one of the most important aspects of writing a solid story, but what does it mean in relation to fiction? How is it used best? With this definition, of course:

Change is an event - spoken dialogue, internal emotion or a physical action - that causes irreversible consequences, creates challenging differences between characters and alters the expected outcome of future events.

Now think about your life and consider when changed happened for you, what it impacted, and what the outcome of that change was.

Thought so.

B3 out.

History of 3D Game Engines

Great article on the history of 3D game engines, lots of screen shots included. Check it out if your a gamer too.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/3d_game_engines

B3 out.

More Privacy Issuse

Facebook is at it again. Ah well, at least this time you can opt-out of this terrible program.

See, Facebook is able to use any of your photos, particularly your profile picture, in advertisements elsewhere on the site. I'm not fond of this, and luckily here is how to get out of it:

(Thanks to Erv at work for the link.)

http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/07/19/your-photos-now-featured-in-facebook-ads/

B3 out.

You Got Some Costed in My Monies

A comment I saw on YouTube recently for a "21 Guns" video:

"I love this song :D I got tickets for Greenday in Melb on Dec 14 and it costed $101 dollars."

"Costed $101?" I sure hope not all Green Day fans are this... unique.

B3 out.

Digsby, The New Awesome

Digsby is an awesome IM client that also happens to support access to many email services and social networking sites, with directly-updatable status feeds, like on Facebook or Twitter.

However, the main download at the Digsby site is a bit malicious, since it uses something called InstallerIQ to download and install the application. In short, InstallerIQ also pulls and installs dubious registry keys and potentially installs pop-up advertising on your computer.

To install the awesomeness of Digsby without the crappiness of InstallIQ, follow the directions I found at this blog:

http://gaetandhont.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/installing-digsby-without-installiq/

B3 out.

Catching Up... Sorry!

Holy hell, it's been a buys couple of weeks. We are in the midst of Summer 2009, and in a couple months I will be looking back to reminiscence, and it looks like I will have a lot to reflect on.

• Bash '09 was July 4th at Korinne's place out near Weston, and it was a fantastic time. I got to meet a few new people (Korinne's family, mostly) in addition to see fireworks and have a ton of fun outside. The whole event was a great success, and although I've said that three Bashes are enough, I might reconsider this position in the future.

• I've been searching for a use for my new Twitter account, and to be honest, I've been baffled as to what to do. I have a few "tweets" (I hate that when used as a buzzword, by the way) up, all work-related, but nothing consistent. I do believe that I may have come up with a decent use now, however: as a note-taking device. I have access to Twitter from anywhere (iPod, netbook, cell phone, work and home), and I intend to jot down quick ideas, notes and thoughts about fiction concepts or characters that come to me throughout the day. I can then periodically review these and compile them into (hopefully) future fiction.

• I saw Green Day in Detroit yesterday. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. While a good portion of today's music fans talk down on Green Day for abandoning their indie-punk roots and taking a calculated approach to their music (by the way, I agree with this), they sure as hell do put out music with fairly-universal appeal and put on an even better concert. Opening song "21st Century Breakdown" was as good as it ever was on the album, and dives into music 15 years old with "Minority" or back to modern-hit "Holiday" or "Jesus of Suburbia" were awesome. This variety of classic songs kept the show from ever becoming stale, and plenty of pyrotechnics and shenanigans from Billie and Co. proved to be surprisingly mature. Green Day are seasoned punk veterans who gracefully made the transition to influencial stadium-filling rock band. This is one show I would see again.

With that, I have to head to bed for another long day of work. I'm probably looking at another weekend of work, which sucks, but hey, whatever. B3 out.

Now on Twitter

I'm now on Twitter:

B3 on Twitter

... but the question is, with my life so entrenched in Facebook, why join Twitter now? I'm not sure, but I have a couple of neat ideas for how to use Twitter. Perhaps a scratch pad for creative writing ideas, or leave it as I begun it, a work-exclusive status updater. Hmm.

B3 out.

Stomach Flu: 1, Brandon: 0

Well my last post ended with me looking forward to a great Sunday this past weekend.

What happened?

Sunday morning, 5:30am I wake in my bedroom, barely lit by the creeping morning sun, and was immediately sick. What a stinker. 5:30am turned into 7am, then 9am, then noon, and before I knew it, it was 3:00pm, a bright sun blinding my vision, teasing me to go outside and enjoy a wonderful day. I just could not do it, however.

I drifted in and out of sleep the rest of the day, occasionally getting enough energy to sit up and realize how much of my day was passing me by. Next thing I knew, it was Monday: back to work. It is quite surreal to lose more than half of my weekend by barely blinking an eye, but that's what happened, and it sucks.

I can't wait to get my week back. Oh look, a three-day weekend coming up. Badass.

B3 out.

No More Stress, 40 Pounds Down, and All the News Fit to Print

Sometimes I just need to get away from my current situation. Sometimes it is work, sometimes my family or house, and sometimes just my current life in general. For whatever various reasons, escaping is the right thing to do, the easy answer to short-term stress. I can not be allowed to experience stress - both my doctor and cardiologist have told me repeatedly that stress is very like the cause of my nerve-based heart condition. Zero stress = healthy Brandon, and I'm putting a lot on the line to reduce my stress - I'm making lots of changes in all aspects of my life.

I'm learning to deal with immediate stress. I cannot avoid all stress throughout my day, but what I can do is remove myself from a stressful situation to allow time to process my thoughts. Almost 100% of the time I find a combination of self-isolation and my favorite music to be a great way to get away. I have a long list of songs from my high school days that seem to effortlessly carry my mind away to another place, and I do not hesitate to revisit this music when necessary. Tantric, Saliva, Lostprophets, Creed, Alanis Morissette, Matchbox Twenty, and many others are at the top of my lists. It does work for me. What works for you?

Changing gears quickly, I will briefly introduce the 40 Pounds Down program that I will be starting on July 1st. My physical health has become a major focus for me in the past few months, and this program is designed to address this fact as well as address several upcoming needs relating to my goals for 2010. 40 Pounds Down (40PD) is a rigidly-defined diet and exercise program that I have spent nearly a month designing. After two weeks of silent testing, I am now in a position to follow my plan and without much hesitation, see success. I will be posting lots of information and stats about the program on Critically Correct, including my personal progress update. The eventual goal of the program is to lose 40 pounds of unnecessary body fat, build strength for both lifting and running, and increase my overall stamina, mainly in an effort to counter the fatigue brought on by my current heart medication.

Finally, a few tidbits.

• I accidentally busted the battery latch on my phone tonight, which I'm trying to set in place with glue. I will be out of a phone unless I manually hold my battery in or the glue holds. Convenient timing for this too, since it was my own rage and anger that threw my phone out my bedroom window in the first place. See what I mean about avoiding stress?
• I have a new event going up on Facebook soon, called "The March to Maumee." Keep an eye out for this open-invite event that should take place sometime in late July.

Time for bed. Hopefully a great Sunday is ahead of me. Today was halfway a bust.

B3 out.

Summer Is Here, and So Are the Ghostbusters

Summer is here... about time.

This year's seasons have been rather odd. We had a mildly late winter bolt almost directly into spring and summer: March was rather chili, April warmed out of the 30's finally, but May landed Northwest Ohio in plenty of sunny, 80-degree weather. It's been up and down through June, but now we are expecting at least seven days - and probably more - of 80 to 90-degree temperatures. Scorching almost, with constant sun. A beautiful week, no doubt, and I'm looking forward to it.

With all this nice weather I have plenty to get done outside (jogging, some minor photography, hiking, etc.), but it will be hard to stay outside and not be tempted by the lure of a great new game I got: Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I am a long-time fan of the Ghostbusters, and it is one of the few movies that has impacted my life multiple times in multiple ways. As a child I saw it with simple amazement: I did not fully understand the movie, but I saw it for what caught my attention at the time: cool guys using cool guns to capture neat ghosts. Years later I re-watched it with a bit of an education under my belt, and I understood the humor much better - and the everlasting impact of the movie was complete.

Like so many other people, I've really been looking forward to the new Ghostbusters game - the first in 20 years - and now that it is here... I'm torn. As a movie-licensed product, there is success to be found. The script is funny, classic Ghostbusters, following in the footsteps of the first two movies very well. The script does the movie one better, by delving much deeper into the mythology and history of the events at hand, something achievable thanks to the greater amounts of time available to a gamer - a ten-hour game allows for much more narrative freedom than a 90-minute movie. The full cast is here providing voicework and likenesses. For fans of the first film, this is the true sequel that the second movie should have been.

As a game, things take a tumble. I am explicitly focusing this commentary on the PC version of the game, so my views may not apply to the Xbox 360 / PS3 versions of the game. First of all, technical problems plague the game. My PC meets and exceeds the system requirements, and I run the game with modest settings (1280 x 720, all medium settings) and there are areas of extreme slow down... frame-chug not seen this bad in a long time. This is forgivable in short bursts, but there are some sections of the game where the framerate never recovers, forcing a restart of the application. This isn't an occasional annoyance, it is a problem that plagues every few levels.

Actual gameplay isn't half bad. The variety of weapons is nice, but outright proton streams are done so well it's hard to want to use anything else. What Ghostbusters does right is nail the imagined feeling of being a Ghostbuster. This is the game I wanted to play in my childhood. Encountering a ghost, weakening it, wrangling it, and trapping is feels real damn good, and thanks to a wide variety of ghosts, doesn't really get old. Team work is required for many ghosts, and the game's AI seems to do a decent job of providing that team work. This is a straight-up linear adventure on the PC, no multiplayer, so I'm glad it was only a $30 purchase. The experience of finally being a Ghostbuster is awesome the first few times around, but I can't see too much replay value coming out of this game in the long run.

For all I can complain about The Ghostbusters, I can't ignore the initial childhood glee that filled me the first time I blasted and caught my first ghost alongside the original team. This game is an experience more than a game, one that will probably have a short overall lifespan, but until it's over, it's quite a ride.

B3 out.