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April 09, 2007
Psycho...Not
Two things ping-ponging in my brain as I avoid the abomination known as “Dancing with the Stars”…
- Yesterday, I published a podcast, wrote a blog entry, designed a webpage for our wedding on my MacBook, and played five hours of “Psychonauts” on my PS2. You mere mortals call yesterday “Sunday”; I call it “The Greatest Day Ever”.
- A lot of you may have cringed that I went out and bought a MacBook right after spilling wine on my last one, but the number of nights I’ll have to stay at home in the dark in order to save up enough money to pay for the new one will be worth it. Bought a $25 cable to connect my digital camcorder up to my MacBook, hooked them up, and two hours later had created and edited a 10-minute walk-through of the location for the ceremony/reception. Gotta love Mac software, I must say. Every step was, “Hrm, I wonder what to do next…maybe this…ah, yes, this.” Gotta love iMovie. And iWeb. Cuz iDon’tKnowMuchAboutAllThisStuff.
- Back to “Psychonauts” for a second…I spent literally two hours trying to save this kid’s bunny from being eaten by mutated rabbits. This kid had one of the more singularly annoying voices EVER, as if Fran Drescher were transplanted into the timbre of a 5-year old boy. Every time I held the bunny long enough with my mind for this kid to grab his pet, he’d fly to a higher part of the level. And all he said were whiny exclamations such as “Buunnnnyyyyy!” or, when the mutated rabbits attacked, “Ow! My face!”, or, if I used telekinesis on the kid accidentally instead of the bunny, he’s shriek, “Not me! The bunny! I’m not a bunny!” Two. Hours. Of. This. Finally turned the game off so I could get a fresh start today. On the way into work this morning, The Girl turned to me on the commuter rail and said, “Know what? I don’t care if the bunny makes it. Kinda hope he dies.”
- Back to the MacBook, since I’m ready to take The Girl’s ring in the middle of the night and slip it in one of the MacBook’s USB ports…the iMovie experience was insanely cool, and extremely intuitive. The two go closely hand in hand, really. If the software were frustrating to work, the experience wouldn’t have been cool. Some people really enjoy breaking DaVinci-esque codes when it comes to figuring out software. Not me. I want the guesswork reduced to a minimum, thank you kindly. I have enough trouble helping little kids hang onto their bunnies to worry about my movie editing software taxing my brain. And yes, I sound like a complete shill for Apple right now, but there’s something to be said about technology that’s not only powerful but user-friendly. As long as, naturally, you keep liquids a safe distance from said technology. I’ve actually installed filters in each room that suck the moisture completely out. Sure, my skin’s a little more taut than usual, but it’s worth it in the end.
- OK, one more time back to “Psychonauts”, last time, promise…it took me nearly 4 hours to get that freakin’ kid his bunny and then navigate an obstacle course to get to the big boss…and then the big boss took five minutes to defeat. That was, um, odd. A few weeks ago, the final boss took me five hours to defeat (including having to backtrack through the game just to earn enough credits to buy a certain gun, and man, I’m just losing all sorts of street cred in today’s entry, aren’t I, jeesum), so to say this was anticlimactic is understating the case tremendously. Oh well. All over now. Onto the new game.
- And now back finally to the MacBook…when I did the video walkthrough, I did a narration as I recorded, so people would get a sense of the layout and what we planned to do with the space when the big day arrived. Unfortunately, I sound really, really, weird. Like, “Blair Witch Project” crossed with “To Catch a Predator” weird. I was creeping myself out as I edited the clips together on my computer. I kept waiting for me to say, “I am so sorry! Because it was my fault. I was the one who brought them here. I was the one that said ‘There’s candy in my van’." I hope I don’t sound like that on the podcasts. I wouldn’t know because I don’t listen to them once they’re done, anymore than I read what I’ve written after I post. All in the past, man. Eyes to the future. (Plus, this way I don’t have to spellcheck and stuff. Total bonus.)
Posted by Ryan McGee at April 9, 2007 09:00 PM