Author: cortjezter

in the black: ipod video 80gb review

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 21 September, 2006

thought of the day: some people i cannot imagine naked (and don’t want to succeed in doing so). then there are those who i cannot imagine getting naked for the sake of pleasure.

some may know that i recently purchased one of the brand new ipods. yes, the video-enabled ones, and yes, the 80GB black one. the battery in my previous white, 40GB, gray-screened one seemed to not be enough anymore for the lengths of time that i needed it to live, and despite my best efforts of having originally waited for colour screens, only to give in a month short of the surprise release of said feature, some of the functionality of the newest generation of ipods is simply something i wanted to experience and share.

so now that i have it… what is to be said of this gadget? after a mostly painless checkout experience on apple.com’s store (i opted for an engraved message on the chromed backside, as well as a tip-in note to myself–intended for gift-giving, but used in mockery to bloat my self-assurance), it set sail from china to the midwest of america… all in 3 day’s time. i have to say the expediency of the standard (free) shipping is astounding. in fact, everything i’ve ever ordered from apple has arrived quicker than expected; and it’s quite possible mine is an isolated–or at least rare–track record for deliveries.

the first thing i noticed is that the new packaging seems roughly half the size of my 40GB’s cubic box (redundancy duly noted); that’s wonderful for someone environmentally mindful like myself. as always, the cleanliness of the packaging and it’s printed design are one of a kind; no other company in the world designs products and packaging like apple. where my last ipod’s box had a slip sleeve featuring bright colours and the iconic dancing silhouettes housing a plain black cube with just the white apple logo, this new packaging has a sleeve reminiscent of collectors edition dvd’s, except roughly the flat dimensions of a cd case, an all black attire, with accents of silver foil instead of plain white. being someone who has in the past year become more aware of packaging and printing technologies, i can definitely appreciate the detail–and glaring lack thereof–in its beauty.

the second thing i noticed was that it seemed almost TOO small.

thought of the day

all good things…

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 20 September, 2006

thought of the day: do retirement communities have a lot of ‘turnover’?

listening to:
Back to Basics
Christina Aguilera

everyday minutae gaming interesting links

windy city didn’t blow

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 19 September, 2006

i spent the weekend of august 4 in chicago, along with the rest of my friends/staff at gonintendo, specifically to attend the video games live concert, an interactive orchestral event devoted to the appreciation of video game music. while we were invited by one of the event founders, it seems the invitation was mostly to lend assistance to the production than to enjoy the show itself. luckily part of it for us included backstage access, vip badges, and also a night of hanging out with some other vgl staffers and game composers.

the premise of video games live is to give the audience an interactive concert, or at least one with more entertainment value than your average symphony. the show includes a large video display which runs footage of the game whose music is being played.. and the staging includes a variety of fancy, whirling lights that dance off the translucent haze no doubt generated by the panting mouths of the enraptured audience below. but the catch is that the orchestra plays in sychrony with the video footage, and the lights reflect both the rhythm and colour-mood of the display. all the elements play together and upon one another in brilliant moments sprinkled throughout the performance.

the show itself ran about two hours, and included music & video ranging from bleeping space invaders to footage of nintendo’s vaunted and as-yet-unreleased legend of zelda: twilight princess. while some of the programmed lighting forced the spotlights framing the giant screen to drown the picture behind, it wasn’t as distracting as you’d think not being able to see the video would be. as for the interactive bits, a few lucky audience members got to take place in on-stage contests of skill in effort to win various prizes. unfortunately, not everyone won, but i’m sure the thrill of being on stage was as valuable a takeaway as any prize package.

i’ve heard mixed reviews over the performance of other local orchestras peforming the VGL repertoire, but chicago’s was top notch all the way; not an off-note the whole night. in fact, some of the pieces were so well done, it rivalled the production values of the original studio-recorded tracks. not to geek out too much, but with jack wall conducting the theme/medley of myst (some of which he also composed), i was delighted to tears; the orchestra and chorale were really that good. if you have a chance to check out a VGL show in your area, i highly recommend it.

for some photos of the VGL-related parts of the trip… visit the gonintendo flickr page.

gaming

nintendo and hidden homosexuality?

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 2 August, 2006

here’s a question posed by a member of the boards over at gonintendo, the gaming site i help run: has nintendo closeted any of it’s major (or minor) franchise characters; are any nintendo characters gay?

you know, this is an interesting question, even if it does stray quite far from the characters and their appeal. nintendo characters are popular because they appeal to so many demographics, and appeal to those demographics because they’re popular. one of the strengths of their franchises is that they’re free from the things that normally alienate people… such as adult situations and sexuality. even innuendo is rare, if ever found in direct connection with them.

that said, to take them out of context and replaced into an adult context… we can all read whatever we want into it. gay characters are of course as much speculation as is assuming they’re straight. do the male protagonists battle to free the damsel out of heroic duty, romantic interest, or a mixture of both? 2 of the 3 options imply heterosexuality, so the odds are in that favour, but this thread is to explore that other 1/3 chance that they’re not.

gaming

Super Mario Galaxy, Wii details predicted in ’91 by modern day Nostradamus

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 28 July, 2006

after reading this joystiq article yesterday, i decided to unearth my old issues of Nintendo Power to see for myself whether this was true, or a photoshop phabrication. as it turns out, jimmy peterford DID predict the near-future state of nintendo back in december of 1991.

among the almost creepy parallels are the name of nintendo’s next mario flagship platformer, super mario galaxy; and also information about their “virtual console” feature of their next console, Wii. One thing this article doesn’t mention is the inclusion of “six” controllers…though it draws lines between the predicted number of “buttons” the wii-mote could be said to have. as it turns out, the wii’s wireless controller uses the bluetooth standard, which limits device-to-device connectivity to 7 per base unit… so little jimmy was close on that count as well.

it’s my bet that today he either works at nintendo, or for miss cleo and her bevy of 900 numbers.

art & photography everyday minutae interesting links

something old, something new!

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 26 July, 2006

the onion has an hilarious article about one of the largest cultural phenomena of recent year: wikipedia. one of the ideas behind wiki is that the collective knowledge of the world will outweigh comparable resource in terms of quantity, quality, accuracy, etc. unfortunately, adding the internet also adds a lot of mischief… and in the case of wikipedia, many articles wind up with some level of vandalism at some point. that’s where the onion enters to poke decent fun.

america celebrates 750 years of independence!

so what of the ‘new’? the video isn’t ready yet (some preview clips here though), but i have over a dozen images taken from day one of my new g35 sport coupe. it is quite honestly the most beautiful, amazing vehicle…ever. these photos are also beautiful, but clearly don’t do it justice. some of them are wallpaper quality, so feel free to use them as such. enjoy!

thought of the day

SPF – sun, plants, feed

Post author By cortjezter
Post date 26 July, 2006

thought of the day: why don’t plants sunburn? understandably, they ‘feed’ from sunlight, but then the question becomes, if they’re eating all the time, how come they don’t overeat? humans can both overeat and sunburn; it only seems fair that other living things do too.

in other news, my beautiful g35 has come in, and i’ve been enjoying it the past 3-4 days. i’m sad to be without my z, but all good things come to an end i suppose. at least i have something as good–and better–to help fill in the gap. look for some photos and video footage soon!

listening to:
Throwing Copper
Live