...good luck to my sis on her first day in school tommorow

Now some pics:



scott's first try at raw meat...not a large success


...but all ended well




some not so well lit shots of the band shellac


kevin goes for his glamour shot...

...prayers

Here's a prayer hoping well for all in the new orleans area, especially my friend Mike.

...gatesofsteel.com MIA for a bit

I currently have gatesofsteel.com registered through a crappy domain company (registerfly.com, I don't recommend them). I am going to let the domain run out and pick it up through another domain hoster...any suggestions? Something good/cheap would be nice.

In any case you can still come here though this site: http://dressedup.blogspot.com/ until I get gatesofsteel.com back.

...I pray to the Blogger God: please no more spam comments

This is right after our Boston vs. Journey debate


before said debate


can't wait for 2 MP cellphone cameras


chris dressed as chris


at Best Buy Nat's game Madagascar was crashed on display...Joe is showing support


people hovered near the cupcakes


I told ya just add water


1st of Dr. Lara's big b-days...

...my entire CD collection

So I've spent the entire month ripping all my CDs into mp3s. It takes awhile as I only use what I consider to be the best method: EAC secure mode using LAME alt preset...I gotta say screw the RIAA...I bought 95% of these CDs, and since I started ripping a year or so ago, I have bought more CDs and listened to more music than in many years previous.

Ths sum total is 543 CDs (~500 albums as some are multi-disc albums) taking 44 Gigs...Not bad considering I have lost/had stolen quite a few CDs in my life. Here's a list of 'em in case you're curious: MYCOLLECTION Is there any glaring ommisions you think I should have? Think I have enough Melvins albums (and 2 of them wouldn't rip!)?

Now I just need a gapless ipod to put em on...

...funny link

Cats

...old man at the club

Went to see a band called Nine Black Alps thursday night at a club near work....by myself again...Maybe I should have bought someone's ticket to go with me (it was only $5!). A theory (devised while waiting in-line): the older you get, the less people do things with you...I noticed the younger the kids were in line, the more friends they had with them...getting old sucks...or at least it does 'round here...hrrmph!


Waiting in line...


Patiently waiting for the band to come on-stage...Hurry it's past my bedtime


Did you know they have 2 Megapixel cameras in European and Japanese phones? Mine is obviously NOT one of those


small stage, tiny sound, but still rockin'


a bunch of heads




Corey's 30th...second 30th b-day I've been to at this bowling alley

...so take off all your clothes

Heatwave throughout the country...it's been beautifull here luckily (low 70's). I wish I could export the west coast weather for all my friends and family...

...A

Wearing a bandanna anarchist-style messes with people's heads...I enjoy dress up parties...

...and some musical notes

Watched all of live 8 last weekend...here's some thoughts:

MTV really messed this up...they barely showed any full songs.

London had the best lineup by far, but of course MTV chose more substandard artists from the Philly show and barely any from elsewhere.

You can get all the songs from all the bands here.

Audioslave is laughably bad...Chris Cornell has lost his ability to sing, and I don't think he ever had the ability to deliver spoken word lines ala Zack. I was a fan of both Soundgarden and Rage to a minimal degree (1 album each), but it is still disappointing...check it out here.

...pics on my main 2 guitars

For the newly resurfaced Dulli!:

Fender Japanese Jaguar Special

70's Hagstrom H IIN OT

I've got a couple more guitars in my collection but these are my main 2 at the moment...it always changes as a buy and sell continually as I'm never satisfied....

...yay easier picture uploading

As described here

I'm going to try it right now...



it worked...i might try the bigger version next time.

...so I got a new amp

Had to drive to Sacramento to get it...I don't recommend it.


Isn't she purty?

...any good games lately?

Here's some games I've been playing recently
Battlefield 2 demo -excellent!
Splinter Cell 2 - I heart Vs mode
Advent Rising - some cool ideas, some buggy/sloppyness
Pokerstars.com - aww yeah!

...and congrats

to my sis for getting into a good art school...

...Devo and Joy Division cover band photos

you can't tell here in this picture that looks like a painting, but right before this show I learned how to tie a double windsor knot for my tie






2 devo sets from the pretty-accurate multi-time period Mongoloid


hmm...doesn't look like Ian Curtis...but kinda sounded like him

...Devo, Joy Division tonight?

Mongoloid (Hard Core DEVO)
Ghost of Curtis (Tribute to Joy Division)
9pm @ El Rio$7 (3158 Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and Valencia)

I'm not typically into cover bands per se but seeing reasonable facsimiles of the above 2 bands in the same night should be fun...pics to follow...Probably.

...Star Wars Alpha Zero: My Rankings

Best to worst:
1. Ep. 5: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Ep. 4: A New Hope
3. Ep. 6: Return of the Jedi
4. Ep. 2: Attack of the Clones
5. Ep. 3: Revenge of the Sith
6. Ep. 1: Attack of Jar-Jar

...some pics not taken by me

Here's one of me at Roscoes Chiken and Waffles from last years E3


A pic of one of our cats back home, taken by my sis...I'm not sure the signifigance of it but it looks cool

Oh and check out Tamsen's site for pics of me doing my best "Wall Guy" impersonation...

...some E3 pics from LA

Tamsen has 4 drinks with her dinner!


Waiting for the cab to take us to E3


Naveen, confident in his Havok implementation


Our booth at Activision


PS3...controller = yawn...they still didn't fix the awfull d-pad or add analog triggers...goto Tamsen's site to see some better pics of it


Behind me is Stan Lee, the name amongst names


This girl has a triforce tatoo on her arm


Dinner was exciting?


Ben Johnson - SBM...and I don't mean smash bros. melee...


10 minutes after Jeff's monster chop I still has a red handprint


Tamsen + shopping deals = big smile

...the end

...E3 mini-thoughts

General thoughts:
Lots of good current gen games. Maybe 'cause we're doing Shrek Super Slam I was surprised how many 3d brawlers there were...not surprisingly most were American made, and most were not too special the worst being the EA vs. Marvel game Also I was unimpressed by the next-gen stuff in general...Sony was up to their usual lies (albeit with very good looking vids) and Microsoft didn't show much that looked special at all...I was able to talk to Valve's Robin Walker and he said TF2 news is imminent (yay!).

Some notable cool games and a link for each:
Stubbs the Zombie
Shadow of the Collossus
Killer 7
Mark Ecko
Prey
Chibi-Robo
Hulk 2

Games I wanted to check out but were played behind closed doors:
black
gears of war
dead rising
nba 2k6 xbox360
madden xbox360
spore
bully

Notable Stinkers
Madden PSP - terrible framrate and camera too zoomed in for 16:9!
Top Spin Xbox 360 - looked like xbox1
Rockstar Booth - C'mon show off the games!

...pre-E3 - my checklist

Valve - Team Fortress 2: some info would make this my most anticipated
Nintendo - Revolution System
Sony - Ps3
Nintendo - GBA 2 (portable gamecube?)
Microsoft - Xbox 360
EA Criterion - Black
EA - Spore
Sony - Wanda and Colossus
Nintendo - New Mario
Monolith - F.E.A.R
Epic - Unreal 3
Sega - Virtua Fighter 5?
Silicon Knights - Too Human?
Rockstar Vancouver - Bully
--- more ---
2K Games - 24
Sierra - Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
EA - Battlefield 2
2K Games - NBA2k6

...and I'm going to E3 in 3 days

E3 is the biggest event in video games that is held in LA. I'll be there from tuesday until sunday. I'll have some of the games I'm interested in and pics when I get back...until then here are some pics of the japanese cherry blossom festival.


















...the end.