apple juice

This is not the sort of thing I would normally admit out-loud. Yes, I am a geek, all who know me can attest to that. But I usually have a very tempered level of geekitude. The geek is not on display at all times, more like it’s in the holster ready to come out at any moment…

This is one of those moments.

I’m listening to the soundtrack to a video game right now. There, I said it.

It’s the soundtrack for Splinter Cell (a game I have never played), and the music was composed by Amon Tobin… an electronicalist… err something.

I guess this is what happens when the Apple Juicette is out of town for a week:

• Come home from work
• Feed Dog
• Eat left overs for dinner
• Watch “the daily show” from last night
• play Zelda for an hour or so. (okay 2 hours)
• listen to music… including random video game music
• type some random incoherence into the old website
• time to go to bed!

Anyway, thanks jgd3 for the recommendation!

I received three Gamecube items for Christmas, NCAA Football 2003, FIFA 2003, and a Nintendo Wavebird controller.

NCAA Football 2003 – Awesome, college atmosphere permeates the game, tried and true Madden-like engine, with the addition of the option play (makes all the difference for me). Once I get a memory card, I will begin my dynasty!

FIFA 2003 – The best soccer game ever! I never played the 2002 versions, so I can’t comment on the changes in controls, although the new freestyle control hasn’t proved terribly useful yet. The manual doesn’t describe any of the “shapes” you can make and what they might do. Regardless, the graphics and gameplay are awesome, and John Motson’s commentary is excellent again as well.

Wavebird – The Wavebird is a wireless controller from Nintendo, and it rocks. It makes you wonder why all systems haven’t gone to this already. Now I have the cube safely placed in the entertainment center, and there are no cords stretched across the room, nothing for Yeti to bite. The controller plays exactly how you’d expect, with the subtraction of the rumble. Not a huge loss, but the rumble is kinda cool. (In FIFA during a penalty shootout it throbs when you have to make a big shot)

A site that I frequently go to when I want to read about a new movie, cd or videogame is Metacritic.

The wonderful thing about this site is they take a CD for example, Spoon’s Kill The Moonlight (a 2002 top 10 candidate) and they have a database of newspapers and online sources from which they gather the scores and excerpts from all the different reviews of this album. They then assign a meta-score, and provide links back to each individual review.

It does wonders for my research process when I’m going to buy a new disc (be it DVD, CD or GameCube game).

Note to the RIAA. I do actually do research before buying CDs, I don’t listen to the radio to find new music, and I’m not going to buy what you tell me to buy. I rarely buy a CD on impulse. I’m always going to try to have heard most of the album before purchasing it. I know you think filesharing is the problem, it’s not. The problem you have now, is that all of us (your customers) are becoming better informed. We don’t want to buy the crap you’re trying to feed us.