halloween is totally almost here, and i don’t think i’ve watched the Nightmare Before Christmas once. i shall change that tonight maybe?

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even more housekeeping. if you’ll notice on the bottom of this post (even for the feeders) there are several links; digg, stumbleupon, facebook, google, etc. so go ahead and click if you feel so inclined. make me famous, that’s all i ask. (well, as famous as a blog can make you).

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as some have noticed from following my tweets, i won second place in the Vote Yes MN Film Contest this past month. it was a hasty venture, but i’m very proud of the overall product. also, Andrew Bird granted me gratis use of a song of his (‘The Water Jet Cilice’ off Fingerlings 3). on that note, big thanks to everyone that helped get those rights and licensing to all of that.

expect a video of it soon.

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i’m not trying to say this as an all encompassing statement, but this might be one of the better sites on the internet: http://www.43folders.com/

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what is music? seriously.

in the recent advent of musical games we’ve seen created then copied then cursed on xbox360, wii, and ps3, it’ve really started to wonder what is drawing so many people towards the simple rhythmic flicking of a plastic tab. why not create actual music on an instrument? wouldn’t it be more fulfilling? well, there’s two sides to that story.

when broken down into simple mechanics, “music” is simply a cause and effect: do an action, hear a tone. pluck a string, hear a tone. purse your lips, hear a tone. press a key, hear a tone. do almost anything, and hear that beautiful tone. put those tones into a sequence that our minds (for some reason) finds pleasing, and suddenly music is made.

over the course of years starting i don’t know when, we’ve made music more complicated (in a sense, but that’s another thought entirely). meaning it’s become somewhat of a daunting thing to learn music to recreate the tones and rhythms we find pleasing AT THAT MOMENT (i wouldn’t pickup a guitar and expect to be covering david bowie in a matter of minutes). music is also enormously complex in a mathematical sense, meaning knowing what notes go well together, and imo WHY those notes go together, is also a deterrent for people seeking to expand musically.

rock band and guitar hero cut these hurdles out altogether; with the simple tap of a pad or flick of a tab, you can create music that you know and find pleasing. it’s a simpler input for a more complicated output.

music is an expression; an expression such as acting is very much fueled by the audience, whereas music doesn’t have tangible expressions to relate to, such as language. music has a physical and emotional attachment. so, illuminate the difficulty of producing such complex and pleasing tones, and you have rock band. it’s essentially doing the same thing as playing a real instrument.

this is in no way saying “screw real music, just play video game music.” it’s exactly the opposite: pursue music. don’t cut out these games as entertainment for apes. all they’re doing is showing people what playing is like, but giving them so much more in return.

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it’s videos like this that make me think cats could beat up an old lady, take her purse, and still be as adorable as ever

house-keeping!
dig it! and by ‘dig it,’ i mean to look up at the web-address: you are now at http://rabidlime.net! this shindig is it’s own entity now, so adjust your bookmarks and readers properly (click here to add this url as a feed).

and to google readers: go to the site, just for a second or two; it looks pretty good.

you’ll also notice a new menu bar at the top. this is not an original idea, as Adam Lisagor has the same thing on his tumblr. plus, he gave me props, so i figured a good ‘thank you’ would be to rip off his idea. but, without further ado, onto the bloggies.

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i started a vimeo page and put a bunch of stuff onto it. watch away, and there’s more to come.

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i took notice yesterday in how friendly i am towards people, though this is just on the ‘no, after you’ level of things; i don’t bound around downtown handing out flowers and kisses on the cheek. but i was struck also by how i seem to be the only one ever saying hello to people i don’t know. it’s not as if i’m a social butterfly, i’m actually quite awkward around people i don’t know. this breach in personal etiquette, i think, can be attributed to my comfortability in being absolutely helpless (enter the improv and all that). overall, it’s a skill i’m happy to have (or not have, whichever way you look at it).

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i, thanks to the terrific fred beukema, got the chance to play through Shadow of the Colossus. and i’m pretty sure i’ve written about this game before, but it really is something that merits repeating.

the game overall, is masterful. the game succeeds in several departments that normally get overlooked; storytelling, escape, experience, presentation, etc. but it’s the culmination of all these parts that make the game such a memorable experience.

if you ever get the chance to give it a play-through, please do. you shant regret it.

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it’s so gloomy and awesome outside. i love it.

we haven’t updated the site in forever. so, john and i are officially killing inassociationfilms.com. what will happen to my blog seeing as it’s a subdomain of the soon to be memory? find out soon.

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i was scolded by wikipedia. i did have photographic evidence of this. however, the comp i’m on crashed and had to be rebooted before i could get it up. so you’ll just have to believe me.

Mark Rein, part of the upper crust over at Epic Games, has a history of being a serious d-bag towards pretty much everything. watching this behavior for sometime, i have periodically updated his wikipedia page to state as such. but then, today, the game came to an end.

i was sent a message (my active IP address) stating that it was “hardly mature” what i had typed and that i should “consider the foundation that wikipedia was built upon.”

this changes nothing. mark rein is still a serious d-bag.

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i was was doored today (lightly, but still doored), and told to get on the sidewalk. it’s illegal to bike on the sidewalk. i really don’t know where these people come from.

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tim, damian and i will be giving a podcast the ole’ college try tomorrow night. perhaps i’ll host it from the new site… whenever that happens.

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tired… so very tired.