After a day of thinking about it, I managed to fulfill this week's challenge for Photo Friday. This is a crab apple, that was frozen on the tree. It fell off after the second or third snowfall, and I accidentally stepped on it. If you don't think it's gross, try it and see how it feels on the bottom of your shoe
This week went flying by, and it feels like I just woke up Monday morning. In case you are wondering, this is not a bad thing. Today's PhotoFriday challenge has left me empty. Entitled: Gross, it found another chink in my armor that I can't fill. I simply do not have any picture that is gross, unless you could the wonderful few in which I make extremely funny faces. As soon as I read it, I knew I needed to broaden my approach to photography, and try to take pictures that most people wouldn't ordinarily. As is usual with this sort of discovery, as soon as I knew I didn't have anything for the challenge, I thought of a dozen or so things I've encountered over the last couple weeks that would have made excellent candidates.
This upcoming weekend is looking to be pretty packed, although I won't be doing the wood turning I was planning on doing. It turns out the Black Forest people weren't entirely honest when they said they had my lathe already. A retail monkey told me that they did in fact have it in stock, when the truth is: they are en route to the store. George assured me it would be in next week.
Saturday, hmmm, Saturday, I had something to go to on Saturday. Something for the veterans? No. Something for Christmas? No, that's not it, hmmmm. Maybe it'll come to me.
After a rather odd mix up in launch dates, I finally got a hold of the highly anticipated Gears of War for the 360. For the last couple of days, I've been working like a madman, late into the evening early morning trying to get stuff done for various projects and chewing through the list of home made Christmas list items. Last night I took a much deserved break, and spent some time playing this wonderful new game.
My first impression was that this definitely is not a game for children, which shouldn't be surprising because of the large M on the box. Rated for "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language" it's right on the mark. The first time you sink the chain saw into someone, of ram a frag grenade into their body before it blows, you know that you know that Epic didn't shy away from showing people what War is all about. The game plays out like a doomsday war movie, the dialog is impressive (if loaded with words you don't want your 4 year old picking up), and the flow of the game plays well into the story.
Saying that the content is gruesome is one thing, witnessing it in High Definition is completely another. The graphics for this game are to the level of crazy. This game really shows the community what the 360 can push as far as graphics are concerned. The models are excellently detailed, some of the views are breathtaking in their vastness and attention to design and I've yet to see the engine slow down one little bit in all of the intense game play.
The best part of the game, however, is it's game play. Epic Games (the same bright boys that brought us Unreal Tournament) has brought a whole new element into the shooter genre of games: cover. You can't just run around like a fast twitch idiot anymore, and hope you can shoot someone else down before they shoot you down, now you employ a series of SWAT like maneuvers hopping between broken husks of old stoves, sand bag barricades, doorways, trees and pillars trying to move around an enemy to expose their flank. You have to lay down covering fire for your team mates so that they can attempt to make crossings that leave them out in the open, nothing more than ripe targets for unsuppressed enemies. It is true that you can shoot at exposed parts of an enemy while they are cowering behind something smaller than they are, but while you are trying to line up that elbow or knee in your scope, you are exposed to all of his buddies. It's a different way to play, as you are really hesitant getting out from behind your precious cover, until you know what next piece you are going to use. Epic also did a great job with the save/checkpoint system (unlike Capcom's Dead Rising) and it just fades into the background, and you never need to worry about it. Having your partner teleport to the checkpoint when you reach it, also helps keep the game moving quickly. The balance that is struct with the ammo supply and your ability to regenerate health, also means you can spend more time in the action, than worrying about finding a pack of something.
Perfectly complimentary to the new game play style is the controls. Epic made the mad dashing from cover very easy to control, as well as the aspects of shooting from cover, and coming out of cover to get a more accurate shot. Another nice new feature, is the 'point of interest' button. When you hear someone yelling about a grenade, a fallen team mate, a newly discovered gun turret or emergence hole, you can press a button and the camera snaps towards what they were talking about. The controls become very natural after a very short learning curve.
The reason I was most looking forward to with this game was the Co-operative play. Right out of the box, I was playing in a split screen with Sonja, and the two of us were shooting through the level together. The same thing can be done in full screen over Xbox Live. I joined in as Dom in one of Mark's game, and we could strategize over the voice link, and render locus after locus dead in our path. I haven't tried the Versus mode on Live yet, but from what I hear, it's also a great deal of fun.
As great as the game is, there is still a couple areas I think could be improved. I would have liked to see the split screen Co-op be left-right as opposed to over-under, and the mechanics for getting into and out of a Co-op game are not quite as good as they could have been. For instance, if the second player leaves, I don't see why the first player has to quit as well. If I can jump in at any time, I should be able to jump out at any time.
All things considered, this is a very good game. It is currently my all time favorite, and is quickly generating a big online community. With Emergence Day coming up this weekend, and contests and tournaments scheduled for the future, I can see this quickly becoming one of the most popular games on Xbox Live.
I'm not going to lie to you, I like working with wood. I like it a lot. I like it more than I like snowboarding, which is saying something, but not quite as much as I love photography.
This last weekend, I managed to indulge two of my favorite yearnings. Friday night I went to Warren Miller's: Off the Grid, and on Sunday I went to the Wood and Tool Show.
Warren Miller's film was pretty much up to expectations. The cinematography was top notch, the terrain was spectacular, and the abilities of the professional skiers and snowboarders were unquestionable. The film showed some amazing powder, and made me yearn to get out on the mountain. It was rather disappointing to go outside to bare ground and above zero temperatures.
The Wood and Tool show was too good for my own good. Hall C of the Roundup center was roped off and filled with wood nuts. Every vendor who was somebody was there, and they were all hawking their wares. The Calgary Wood turners had a 'turn off', where two of their members competed in making a top . The winner took a blank stock and turned it into a rough stock in under two minutes. It was quite the sight.
A great deal of representation was put into routers and their bits, as well as the great joinery you can make with it. One of the vendors was showing how to make a very elaborate form of a dovetail joint using only one hand, while drinking a Coca-cola with the other. I was interested in the demonstration, but not in the jig, as I don't have a router (If you are thinking about Christmas: Plunge router, 10+ amps, 2+ hp, 1/2 inch collets, the on/off switch on one of the handles, variable-speed, thanks).
A hole that I no longer have in my wood working arsenal is that used by wood turners. I knew it was going to happen since my brother gave me my dad's old skews, gouges and scrapers. I was hoping to buy one a couple weeks ago, that was until I found out that some lathes come with a turnable headstock feature that allows you to spin larger projects without having to drop a couple grand for a stand up lathe. I went back to the research.
I figured I wanted either a General International, or a King Canada lathe. Since the turning course I took at Lee Valley used the Generals, I knew it to be a good reliable brand. As it turns out the General people just released the newest version of their Maxi lathe (Bench-top model) with a variable speed turning headstock. When I found out about it, most retails I talked to said they hoped to have it by the time of the Wood and Tool Show.
Along came the show, and I was eager as can be towards finding this lathe. As I wandered about show I found that both House of Tools and The Black Forest Wood Company had the lathe that I wanted, and both for about twice the price I was expecting. I did manage to dicker the House of Tools guy down quite a bit, but his delivery date was three weeks out. So, I took that price back to the Black Forest (because I like them better anyway) and he matched it with delivery this week.
Now, I'm waiting like a child waits for Christmas until my new lathe arrives and I can chew through some junk stock to practice up on my abilities.
A quick view at my sidebar will reveal that my frequency for imprinting myself upon the interweb is decreasing. It's been in a steady fall since I switched over to new blog software. It's not intentional, but I do find the fact that all I seem to post for is Photo Friday a bit on the silly side.
I'm standing at the end of a work day, waiting for the weekend to start. Tonight is a viewing of Off the Grid which, as most Warren Miller films do, will get me pumped for the snow season. Saturday is catchup day, and Mike is coming over for a little business, then some X-Box 360. Sunday, a couple buddies and I are heading to the Wood and Tool Show so that I may drool over tools I really don't need, and perhaps purchase a few that I do in fact need.
Hopefully I can make time at the end of it to write all about the happenings so that when I'm old and grey, I can reminisce of a time when I had stuff to do, and a body to do it with.
