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.