jibber jabber

super stardust hd

damn the stupid playstation network and their downloadable demos. demos are responsible for us buying almost every game we own. luckily this game is a cheap one. this one was more of a steph driven purchase as she was instantly hooked. its like asteroids on crack. the premise is simple: “destroy everything”, the controls are easy: two joysticks and 4 buttons, but its so fun. fun gaming doesn’t have to be hard and require the memorization of 24 different buttons and what they do in different situations (all the EA sport sim games i’m looking at you).

check out a teaser here

Published on January 22, 2008 10:49 pm.
Filed under: gaming

call of duty 4: modern warfare

i asked for this game for christmas and its pretty crazy. i got sucked in right away. i only got to play for an hour or two while packing for Paris and then it was in the back of my head during the whole trip. of course now its progressed to the point where its pretty damn hard, even on the easiest mode (i’m not much of a twitch gamer) that i’m dreading turning it on again.

the visuals and art direction are crazy good and there’s tons of variety in what you have to do and the guns you get to play with but once you get into the middle of a big firefight and shit’s exploding all around you in surround sound and bullets are flying and your guys are yelling, my jaw just starts clenching. its a pretty immersive game and a lot of the time it gets so crazy i don’t know what to do.

it doesn’t help that with all the shadows, darkly lit, or night levels, it becomes too hard to tell who is friend or foe. there’s too much crap going on for me to see the little green name popup.

perhaps its because i have a little bit of programming background but i’ve always been somehow able to figure out AI and game trigger points. with this game its a little harder to figure out but there’s still points where you can skip hard portions by just running like mad for the next trigger point. its also kinda weird that when you don’t know what to do and you’re ducking for cover, the other guys on your team take care of shit for you and then there’s nothing left to do.

oh well, still a pretty rad game and i’ll finish it one day…

Published on January 20, 2008 11:54 am.
Filed under: gaming

new local label

steph came to walk me home from work the other day and we stopped in global atomic just to see what’s going on. it still amazes me that the owner, warren, can remember people that drop in like 4 times a year and know their clothing preferences and sizes and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of what’s in his store too. its crazy.

anyways, buried amidst the nice new uppercut and g-star stuff was a new local label called egg. the piece that caught my eye was a two layer hoody that had some really great lines and design details on it. kind of channeling some rick owens craziness into a more wearable and affordable garment. unfortunately, the arms were too tight for me but steph tried it on and is now claiming it as her own, too bad she spent all her money in Paris…sucker.

eggclothing.com although it only shows their women’s stuff right now.

Published on January 20, 2008 11:32 am.
Filed under: fashion

juno

also got to watch Juno recently. the trailers got me sufficiently interested and i’m glad i gave in and watched it. its for lack of a better word…sweet. its a cute, fun, endearing little movie.

i’m sure you already know the basic premise of the movie so i won’t recap. i love the lead character’s wit and i’m stoked i got to hear somebody say “homeskillet” in a movie. all the other characters were so well written and acted too. the dad kicks ass and i love when the mom bitches out the ultrasound technician.

and yet again, a movie filmed in vancouver just somehow seems to register on my radar even when there aren’t obvious landmarks. i first suspected it when they were driving to the adoptive parents house. the suburbs and the houses just looked so surrey/coquitlam and by the time they were in the mall i knew it was coquitlam centre. i could tell by the railings. pretty silly huh?

anyways go see it. its good.

Published on January 20, 2008 11:24 am.
Filed under: movies

diving bell and the butterfly

friday night our industrial neighbours were throwing a big party and if last years was any indication we figured it would be loud, so we decided to peace out and go see a movie. i was hoping for cloverfield but Steph sold me on this film aka “Le scaphandre et le papillon”

its kind of a biopic in that its the story of the life of the editor of french elle magazine after he has a stroke and becomes a victim of “locked in” syndrome. its a pretty amazing story as far as human determination and life and stuff and the cinematography and visuals were pretty good but there were just some devices that the director used that just started to drive me a little batty.

first off the movie is all first person. you spend the whole movie seeing the world as he sees it or else in his mind and imagination. second, because of his condition, he can only communicate via eye blinks and so he communicates by having somebody recite the alphabet and he blinks when they hit the correct letter. i understand that this is a key point of the movie but its repeated so many damn times that i never want to hear the french alphabet again.

its in french and subtitled and after our recent trip to france, i tried real hard to not read the subtitles. i think i got about 1/3 of it in french. not too bad. also, i found a cool track in the movie that i liked by Ultra Orange and the Emmanuelles who the singer it turns out is one of the actresses in the film.

pretty good movie but you may be distracted by the story telling devices.

Published on January 20, 2008 11:16 am.
Filed under: movies

oh happy day

why so uncharacteristically joyous you ask?? well let me tell you…

SPLITZ IS OPEN IN VANCOUVER!!!!

coming back from a meeting in richmond this afternoon and we stopped in at wingnuts on main for a nice healthy lunch. first time there, can’t complain. tasty wings, IPA on tap, lots of flavours (the spicy thai peanut is a good one) and if you’re so inclined they offer deep fried mars bars or deep fried snickers. kicking it old school london styles.

however, as we were driving away, i noticed that Splitz Grill’s first Vancouver location is finally open. 4242 Main Street. so obviously i told steph when i got home and well we just had to make the trip back to sample it. and apart from using a different bun, its exactly like it should be. ah precious grilled meat and garlic mayo…. luckily its just on the edge of my comfortable walking distance from home so we won’t be there every other day.

actually, main street is turning into quite the tasty little neighbourhood, what with Toshi’s and their spicy agedashi, baked black cod and sass rolls (not on the menu but they can make it for you); Sun Sui Wah with the best dimsum in town; the Reef and their rotis and mojitos; Cantina Mitra and their delicious chicken shwarmas; Wingnuts and now Splitz Grill…

everything’s coming up Milhouse!

Published on January 19, 2008 12:45 am.
Filed under: food

new fave

Found a new clothing label that I’m super hyped on and just might be my new favourite. Wrath Arcane. Love the cut lines and its not even super expensive. Of course I’ve yet to see it in person so it might be some shitty ass fabric or horrible fits but I’m hoping its good. Their vancouver dealer doesn’t seem to exist (anybody heard of Clack Clack?) and Blackbird ain’t got it yet. Now i’m on a mission!

Published on January 14, 2008 8:59 pm.
Filed under: fashion

fashion link dump

found a few new labels i’m pretty stoked on.

Loden Dager
Fiber & Fellow
Final Home
Junk de Luxe

i managed to stumble upon the le bouclard store in paris (it had moved) and got to see the final home stuff in person and it is abso-fucking-lutely amazing but also way far out of my budget. boohoo. the fiber & fellow stuff looks pretty interesting and i definitely love that herringbone jacket but i’ve got to find somebody who carries it first. i’ve definitely learned that i’ve got to try things on first. also happened to stumble upon surface 2 air’s new head office in the marais and dropped in on the attached store where i saw this pretty dope jacket but when i tried it on it just didn’t work.

Published on January 7, 2008 10:35 pm.
Filed under: fashion