I want to post some photos as well but I’m not quite sure this device takes photos of itself just yet.

I’d also like to note that I’m creating this post by “typing” with Swype – an awesome typing app that let’s you slide your finger across the keyboard without lifting your finger. (Okay, and some cleanup with the physical keyboard and the d-pad.)

So far the Droid has seemed pretty easy to blog with. I hope to make some future posts with it from the field in the near future. Also keep yours eyes open for some live streaming video from the Droid as well. Reader, you’re in for some geeky, nerd packed excitement headed your way.

Yes, directly above where I normally lie there were three 105mm Howitzer guns ready to protect the Boston Commons from the advancing Redcoat forces.  What I came to learn was that there were no Redcoat forces but rather a parade and ceremony being held in the Commons for “The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts.“  Even after reading the Wikipedia entry I still have no idea what it is.  Of course it is only in Boston where you can go to the park on a random weekday and witness something like this.  It was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I was in the direct line of fire when the Howitzers went off.  I found myself suddenly having flashbacks of Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee dying on set when a live round was overlooked and loaded into a weapon and thus killed him.  Luckily this was not the case with the artillery today and I live to tell the tale and Newberry Street is not in shambles.  I also realized that it’s not the noise of the cannon but the concussion that makes you mess your shorts.  Check the video:

If you watch it through to about 0:51 you’ll see the rightmost gun create a pretty cool smoke ring.  I haven’t seen a ring like that since ’92 when I was hanging with my buddy Doug and his magic pipe “Gandolf” at a Phish show. (Doug was notorious for taking a hit off of “Gandolf” and uttering, “You shall not pass!” before taking a second hit)  Also, that never happened.  I just needed a pot smoking anecdote to relate to the smoke ring, of which I have none.

After a short while and some pomp and circumstance, the meeting of the military minded ended and I was allowed to reclaim Flagstaff Hill without having to storm the peak and take the lives of six army dudes armed only with blank 105mm shells.  As it turns out the parade on the Commons was a nice turn of events and now I have an anecdote if I ever run into anyone with a Howitzer at a party.

The 105mm guns atop Flag Staff Hill guard my sunbathing spot; Army man escapes my wrath.

One of my favorite songs, recorded in a virtual studio that added new artists  from around the world to the recording using a laptop and headphones.

Enjoy!

At my job we use one such service that has a lot of good music which we use during sports highlights, under edited packages (stories), for promotions and occasionally our creative services team selects a tune to serve as theme music for one of our shows.

Now the problem with this, for me at least, is that I listen to so many songs day in and day out that I know probably 75% of the music in the library we use. Well the real problem is that every other television network uses the same music in some form so I inevitably hear a song that I like to use for hockey highlights on the Discovery Channel for a Shark Week promo. Or I hear a tune that we used in the the Sports Desk open as background music to Nat Geo’s Dog Whisperer.

Now my latest notice of this phenomenon was in this video:

[Embedding is disabled in the vid so please click]

Once you get past the kick-assness of the TAC-15 crossbow and stop daydreaming about shooting zombies in the head during the apocalypse (forget about the  incredibly slow reload time that will cost you your life) go to 3:39 in the video.

That song you hear there (right after the TAC-15 bolt pierces a piece of metal – twice in the same spot) is the theme music for a show I work on called  The Instigators.  N0w you may not hear the theme in The Instigators link but tune in to NESN and trust me you will.  This is very fitting usage of that song however because the only thing tougher than The Instigator’s Mike Milbury is the TAC-15 tactical assault crossbow.

This is in response to Matt Damon’s claim that Sarah Palin’s story “is like a bad Disney movie.”  He nailed it on the head folks.  It’s both the scariest and funniest thing you’ll see all year.  Here’s Matt’s statement below:

So in my eagerness to play some of the said unplayed games (I actually ended up playing more Halo 3 and GTA IV) I decided to download the Braid trial and see what the hype was all about.

The hype indeed was well worth it in this case my friends (friend?).  If I had to describe Braid in one sentence it would be:  “A poetic homage to Super Mario Bros., as designed by Monet, that emphasizes that sometimes what seems to be is not and sometimes our mistakes are more valuable than our accomplishments.”  I know, cryptic, right?

In Braid you are trying to rescue a princess, not unlike Super Mario Bros.

Essentially what it is is a puzzle based game that loosely resembles a 2D Super Mario type world (with an extra homage to Donkey Kong on one level).  Your little hero (anti-hero?) Tim must run around a dreamlike world and collect puzzle pieces by shifting time and space.  It really is a very simple game that shows that even the most simple idea can become very complicated.  Yet I think it is a game that almost anyone can play.

This was my killer puzzle piece.

My rating?  Two thumbs up.  It took me the better of several hours of play to get through all of the worlds (and I only needed help with one puzzle, shhh!) but I still cannot wait for there to be a sequel.

Alas I can add it to my top 5 games that I own and do (did) play.

Games collecting dust.

GamePro recently posted the 32 best games for the Xbox 360. “Sweet,” I realized, “I own 4 of the top 5.” The irony, I’ve hardly played 3 of those. And if you include Rock Band as Rock Band 2, I own 5 of the top 7. Here are the top 7:

1. Halo 3 – Okay, I’ve actually played the multiplayer mode extensively. Halo 3 was a big reason for me to get an Xbox 360 in the first place because I got addicted to playing it over at my friend Hasser’s house. But I really hated being bad at it so I needed to practice in my own home. So the interesting thing is that I’ve only minimally played the story mode and have a low amount of achievements to prove it. For me it’s all about showing some eleven-year-old in Florida that I am better than him.

2. Grand Theft Auto IV – I got this along with most of my buddies when it was released so we could play together in multiplayer (as we do with most games). However the shiny soon wore off and we reverted back to playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (see below). I did play the story mode for a while (and probably got about a quarter of the way through) but I found that I was getting bored with it and I was tired of making drug runs for my cousin Vinny (is that his name?) and I ended up wasting a lot of time looking for “easter eggs.” I quickly found out that I am the worst easter egg finder of all time.

3. Gears of War – Now this is a game that I think I would really like. I got it with my Xbox 360 that I bought from some kid in Oakland. I actually sat down and played it for a little while and thought the game was awesome. However I didn’t quite make it through the training level because I kept getting stuck on one part. I then figured it would be a much better game to play with a partner but I never got around to making that happen and thus GoW has been collecting dust on my shelf.

4. Braid – I only know about this game because one of my friends (Robot) was playing it and I asked him what the game was. I don’t own it but since it’s number four, look for it collecting dust on my shelf real soon.

5. Call of Duty 4 – Alright, when I first got my Xbox 360 this was one of the first games I really wanted to buy. It was all hyped up, was touted as game of the year and was a realistic shooter, so I knew it would be right up my alley. I bought it and it sat on my shelf for about a month because I was too addicted to Halo 3 to bother with my new $60 game. When I finally did get around to playing it I had to adjust to the controls a bit but I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay. I don’t remember how far I got into the story mode but I do know this: I never finished it. I think I reverted to spending time playing RSV2 (again, see below)

6. Mass Effect – Again, heard good things about this game but it has never been on the top of the list for me to purchase and probably never will be.

7. Rock Band 2 – Okay, I don’t have the new version but I do have Rock Band. And although I love it to death (I played out Guitar Hero I-III on PS2) I must agree with GamePro: “The game’s not much fun without friends, but if you’ve got them, you’re golden.” It did get a bit embarrassing when my roommate told me to keep it down when I was banging on the drums all alone up in my room. I can’t image what she was thinking when I was doing the singing all alone. I think I need to find some friends to invite over to rock out with.

Honorable Mention: # 12 Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

As mentioned above, the majority of my game play has revolved around RSV2 as of late. What’s great about it is that you can play in cooperative mode with 3 of your best buds and go around shooting terrorists in a Vegas casnio. What else could you ask for? So why do I play it so much? Well, it makes a really easy game to just pop in and pop out of. Let’s say you have limited time and you are only able to hop online for 30 minutes before you go out to the movies with your girlfriend. No problem, hop on, you see that two of your buddies are online, you join a “terrorist hunt” with them and procede to clear bad dudes out of an abandoned housing project on the outskirts of Vegas. Get a couple of rounds in and your good to go. It’s amazing how good you feel after murdering a few terrorists.

The story version is actually pretty good too. What’s nice is that the play is very tactical and fluid. You must shoot bad guys around a corner with blind fire, shoot them through a wall, and set up C4 to blow a door and kill the 4 guys standing behind it. Meanwhile you send your “team” of computer controlled characters in the other door to the room to pop-off two more of Al Queda’s finest. When I play this I am a badass. I’m one of America’s elite killing force. So secret, even the Pres doesn’t know about me until I save his ass. Actually, that never happens.

Okay, so that’s it. I think I’m off to try round 2 of Gears of War or Call of Duty 4… that is, right after I play one more terrorist hunt with Hasser, Robot and Dirk.

I’ve been saddened by the end of summer feeling that has been going on the last few weeks here in Boston.  The sun is setting noticeably sooner and the temperatures are starting to drop as well (as noticed by my roommate turning the AC up to “Frosty” from the “What’s cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!” setting.  She’s from the Midwest she claims, and likes it cold.

I must thank my lovely friend Laura for calling me up yesterday and inviting me on an impromptu trip to the beach.  It was a summer closer if you will, a last shot at warm weather, sun and surf.  One thing I must say is that I never expected there to be so many good beaches in New England.  Of the four I have visited this summer, I have four that I would call good beaches.  For some reason I expected them to be all cold and rocky like they are in the Northwest.  But alas, this is not the case.

Unfortunately the end of summer brings with it a list of things that I wasn’t able to do.   The list is very similar every year but I will still make the list in hope of not duplicating the same mistake next year.  Overall this is a list of places I keep wanting to go to:

1) Go Camping – I like camping a lot.  It’s something I equate with every summer, but this year- do to my lack of knowledge, odd work schedule and lack of friends in the area – camping has escaped me. Next year this will take high priority.

2) Go to Hawaii -  Now that my buddy Angelo lives in Hawaii, I feel I must take it upon myself to visit him and test the usability of his sofa as a bed.  This is very reasonably doable anytime of the year, so I hope I can scratch this off the list soon.  The main caveats: the 12 hour flight and the price tag that goes along with it.

3) Go to Italy (or anywhere else in Europe) – This falls under my “yearly vacation” topic.  I like to go to new foreign places but  as it turns out I never have the money or vacation time to do what I’d like.

4) Visit friends in Colorado and Utah – Okay, this one is better off for places I want to go this winter.  Tyler, Doug and Ingrid.  Get your couches ready for me.

Since people don’t like blog posts that are too long I should keep it at that.  My next post will be about “leafpeeping” and the fact that leafpeeping is an actual verb in N.E. as well as a noun (leafpeeper- one who engages in the viewing of fall foilage).  By late October I’m sure I will be one of them.

I was first thinking of getting the bottom level bike, in the $250 range – but of course as things are, that never quite happens.  Although the local bike shop had a Giant in the $250 range, there was a Scott on clearance that was the last of its model (2007) and they were just trying to clear it out.  I think it was marked down from $399 to $339.  So okay, I figure it’s a better bike, aluminum frame vs. steel, better components according to the woman there, yadda, yadda, yadda… I end up buying it and spent way more money then I had planned ($55 for a helmet!!, $25 for a lock, and $20 for bar ends, etc) and go over my budget.  I can manage it, but it was more than I planned on spending.

The new ride with new seat installed.

Anyhow, I’ve been getting my money’s worth (or trying to anyway).  I rode it to work one day (not any more because it has been raining).  Rode it both directions along the Charles River on different days to explore the bike paths there and I’ve rode it to the gym a few times as well (that beats riding a stationary cycle and cuts down my workout time).

Now the ONE thing that bugged me even when I was buying the bike was that the saddle was uncomfortable.  My butt and the no man’s land between anusville and scrotumberg were aching after I rode.  I thought that maybe it would just take some getting used to since I haven’t been riding a bike in a long time.  Well, even after all of my riding I’m still kind of sore.

The old seat that already had a little wear on it from less than two weeks use.

The new cushier ass-lovin' seat.

OMG.  I got home and put that bad boy on and it is like 1000% difference.  I notice that my butt does not shy away from sitting down on this seat like it did on the other one. Who would have known a $32 seat would make such a big difference?  Now my ass knows.

Along with my $32 seat I bought $30 more worth of equipment.  My friends, I have found my new summertime money pit to play counterpart to my wintertime snowboarding addiction.  Now if the money I sink into this will actually save me some gas I will be a happy boy.

Ride on!