Aloha friends

Alot going on here in paradise - working hard to salvage the school contract with a last minute presentation today, crossing my fingers the sales dude can work some magic so we can all keep our jobs. I'm still in the running for the job with the school itself, but it's moving slow. The interviews probably won't wrap up until early next year.

I've also been hunting for a new home since my lease is up the end of next month. I decided to go the roommate route in order to save money. Apartments are so expensive here and it costs a small fortune to have my own place (almost $1500 a month) and that's for an apartment that is just okay. If I want a nice place it would cost me $2000 a month.

So I found a place in Kailua that is $2200 a month and that I can split with a roommate. I hope he's cool... The apartment is awesome though, wait till I post pics of this place... I can literally walk outside, pop a kayak into the canal that runs alongside the building, and paddle out into the ocean. The beach is less than a mile away. Sweet...

In gaming news I'm almost through the campaign in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Cool game. When this one hits the bargain bins after the holidays give it a try. I've even been messing around with the online multiplayer and having fun with it too.

I also started Prototype... and it is a bit of a mess. The controls can be cool, but as you run around all you have to do is remotely touch something and you're leaping in the air. This makes being precise in your movements very difficult to do, and guess what? You will need to be precise to survive on anything higher than easy mode. So what happens when you combine a hard game with imprecise controls? Cheap deaths. Not cool.

I restarted the game on easy just so I'd have more fun with it and wouldn't get the urge to smash a controller, however there is alot of collecting in the game too (hundreds of blue and red orbs spread out around the city) and many are in spots that require some measure of precision to get to... argh! I spent a half hour just trying to get Alex to run STRAIGHT up a spire without hitting some sort of crease that would send him leaping out into the sky.

Still working on Persona 3, which is my late night weekend game... and I have plenty of thoughts on Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Let's just say for now that there is a reason why they gave it away free for buying GH 5. Absolutely, under no circumstances, should anyone pay more than $20 for it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends on the U.S. mainland, I'll be home playing games tomorrow so if you are too give me a shout. Unfortunately I have to work Friday, but that's not terrible since the last place I'd want to be is near a mall. Hopefully no one gets trampled this year at Wal-Mart. If I ever see any of you on the news screaming your head off to be the first one to rush into a store on Black Friday I will disown you.

This blog is an addition to Setho10's recent 4 part series on games that most people didn't play but should have. Alot of the games Seth mentioned are the usual suspects we've been hearing about for years - Oddworld, Ico, Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil are games that are continually mentioned as quality games that not many people bought.

I remember well how game writers were screaming at everyone to go out and buy Psychonauts right away otherwise the creative spirit in game development would die and all we would get was rehashed sequels and cookie cutter IPs. So I heeded the call and went out and bought alot of these games so that I could have an experience beyond the norm. More often than not, those writers were spot on and those games were well worth hunting down.

Reading through Seth's list however, I started to think about other games that I really enjoyed that no one bought. Save for one on this list, these games don't get mentioned much anymore and have sort of faded into game history... I'd like to give them some credit.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Don't laugh! I loved this game... the combat was awesome! Kicking vampires in the face, whacking them with shovels and staking them through the heart was alot of fun. This game really was a pleasant surprise. Good story, voice acting by the real cast of the show, and it was long. I'm the only one I know who played this, so speak up and let me know I'm not alone.

Deathrow: What would a futuristic game of violent frisbee/basketball played by a bunch of foul mouthed post-apocalyptic athletes look like? How could you guys miss this one? Opposing team has the disc and you want it? Break his knee, crack his back and then call him a *** ***** *********. Yeah, mom's didn't like this game.

Fatal Frame: Probably the most well known game on the list, still people didn't buy it. If you ever see a list of "Top Scariest Games Ever" and this one isn't number one, then that person doesn't know what they are talking about. Sure I'll get goosebumps from a game every now and again, but this one gave me perpetual goosebumps the whole time. I could only take this game a half hour at a time because I'd overheat from getting flushed. Simply awesome.

Shadow Hearts - From the New World: What a strange game and one that I really enjoyed. If you like turn-based RPGs that try to innovate in their combat schemes, then you may want to try this game's Wheel of Fortune sty1e. Besides, Shania could possibly be one of gaming's hottest characters that no one knows. If you think Bayonetta's shedding her clothing (which is really her hair) while she transforms is, um, interesting, then Shania's transformation into her summons is, uh, just as interesting. And those little indian hot pants... oh lordy...

Gun: I'm playing this other game that no one seems to be playing called Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood that I'm really enjoying (go get it!) and it definitely brings back memories of playing through Gun. It kind of got panned at the time for it's bland graphics, but the gameplay itself was pretty darn good. Maybe gamers just aren't that interested in the Old West.

So there you have it, five gems in the rough. They may not be considered bonafide trend setters, million copy sellers, or 9.0 score achievers, but not every game needs to be in order to have fun with it.

Last week I was watching an episode of This American Life and saw a piece on Mark Hogancamp. Mark was brutally attacked by five men some years ago and suffered brain damage as a result. As a way of working through his trauma and finding a way to express himself he began creating war scenes using action figures and photographing them. These are not your normal backyard "having fun" photos...

Sorry for the small size on these ones, his photos aren't easy to find on the web, it seems only now are people taking notice of him. These two are stills from the show.

Alot of them are pretty violent, these are some of the more tame ones. Keep an eye out for his work in the future, especially in a new documentary that's coming out soon. You can find out info on the documentary here.

Anyways, I thought some of you would find this interesting, I certainly did.

After 3 years I am single again... the breakup has been in the works for awhile now but last night it became official. Even though it was my decision and one that I think was the right one, I'm still sad and it's strange to think of her not being a part of my life anymore. This was the longest relationship I had ever been in and it had been an important part of my life for so long, through so many decisions and so much work at keeping it going.

Bottom line was that we live on different islands and had for the past year. We had been flying back and forth about every 6 weeks to see each other, which gets very expensive. She had talked about moving over here but she never really made an effort, and in the last month or so she made it clear she was going for a promotion at her current job, so I was like WTF? If you're going for a promotion, then that means you have no intention of moving... she wanted to try keeping things as they were.

A year of inter-island dating is fine, but anymore than that and someone has to make a decision to move. I'm about to move into a new position at the school that will likely keep me in Honolulu for the next 20 years, so I know I can't go back to the Big Island. For her, she's really scared to leave her job (this is her main excuse). So basically the breakup came down to this issue, even though there were other things leading me down this road too.

Despite finally make a decision and seeing it through, I'm still sad...

I'm a big believer in action photography and low budget spontaneous acting.

You need to make use of your surroundings to tell your stories. It saves alot of money, money that would have been spent on city licenses and site fees now stay in your pocket. You just need to recognize a film site when you see one and take advantage of it with a camera and your spontaneous acting skills (keep practicing, I don't expect your skills to be up to mine right off the bat, it takes work and dedication to the craft).

Here I tell the moving story of a submariner who's lost his friends on another ship and vows revenge on the enemy ship that took them out.

Now that's some spontaneous acting. The future of guerilla filmmaking.