Something Catchy

Here I am reading different blogs that I tend to frequent and it got me thinking.  Okay so everyone knows that the economy is all kinds of screwed and albeit it scary I think it is also a time for great opportunity.  There have been a lot of people who have made millions during an economic down turn.  I think the real problem lays in first people don’t seem to have faith in themselves let alone the market.  The market will be fine, no worries, will it take some time?  I am sure that it will take time to bounce back, but it’s nothing to be afraid of.  Too many people are stuck in the old way of thinking, you land that good job and work your 40+ hours a week and get your benefits (or not) but you have that security.  So you sell yourself for security, that’s great until they find someone that can do the same job for less.  When it comes to the vast majority of businesses it comes down to the bottom line, money.  Are you costing them too much and not allowing them to grow their capital?  If you answered yes, then you should probably get your resume in order because you won’t have a job for long.

I am in sort of a unique situation,  I am young and for the most part pretty sharp (well I like to think so), oh also a fast learner.  My problem however doesn’t lie in being afraid of loosing my job.  Quite frankly I couldn’t care less.  I don’t want anyone to think that I have no responsibilities and that’s the reason for my total disregard, I have debt, in fact a fair amount, not a ton but some thousands.  It’s no bigs though I mean if I lost my job it would give me the motivation to finally work on the projects that I need to work on.  I am tired of having crappy schedules and being an economic slave.  I want to live the life I want to live.  Perhaps I am just a dreamer, I have been my whole life I suppose.  While in school I would always stare out the window and watch cars driving by and wonder where they are going and wishing I wasn’t stuck in that room (whatever room it may have been).  I also planned on being a rock star, well actually that’s a little misleading.  I didn’t want to be a star in the sense of Bon Jovi or something, but more known in the indie circuits, you have to realize I was listening to The Get up Kids and Saves the Day and the like religiously.  So I just wanted to play, to be honest I still do, but I like to think of myself as being a little more grounded now than I was then.  So back to what I was saying, I think I just want that jolt of reality that makes me move.  I can always get a part time job to pay the bills, and perhaps I have lived too well, maybe I should cut some things out of my life, I would rather not but maybe it’s what I need.

I don’t know if it is just me or what, but I think right now is rather exciting albeit scary.  It’s the journey that’s important not the destination.  So with that in mind I think this could be a blast, here is an experience that I wont get later, so time to take full advantage.  To those who lost their job though, it sucks and I am sorry, but perhaps it is for a reason.  I like to think there is meaning to everything even the small and mundane, but it’s all important.  So if you have your health be thankful for that, if you have your friends and family be thankful for that.  Look to what you do have to give you strength for what you know must be done, well at least in my case.  Don’t let this whole economy in the crapper get you down, tomorrow is a new day full of endless possibilities.

-mikey

Recently the RE5 demo was released for download.  It is still a trial and not the finished version of the levels that are included, so with that in mind if you encounter problems they should be fixed by launch.  For any long time RE fans, 5 follows 4 in regard to the different types of zombies and the view.  Traditionally RE was always a fixed camera so it made peering around corners and looking in general a chore.  However with the addition of RE4 they changed all that, the camera now follows your character in more of a second person view.  If you played RE4 than jumping into 5 shouldn’t be that different.  However they did away with the static menu system, in which you would hit the pause button and you could heal yourself, combine herbs and whatever else tickled your fancy.  While the menu in 5 is similar to the previous installments it’s in game only, so if you are getting attacked by say 50+ zombies and your health is low you can’t just pause the game and fix yourself.   Battles take some for thought which is why you have a companion.  The addition of co-op is excellent, it can create some very epic and tense moments while remaining fun.  Also the sound and graphics are incredible, playing  with surround sound all the way up can really creep you out.  The graphics are some of the cleanest I have seen in a long time, environments were clean and open and didn’t feel muddy with too many textures.  The demo includes 2 levels which are fun and challenging, I would suggest playing them co-op to get your bearings.  This installment should garner many hours of play and a lot of replay-ability, should be a blast when it drops 3/13/2009.

-mikey

Today found me running errands and such, which is a nice change of pace.  I enjoy being busy, it helps mute my mind, which for me is a good thing.  I have this knack for over thinking and over analyzing, which for a philosopher might be a good thing.  At any rate I digress, so I decided to take time and get some stuff down on paper.  Which lead to a sort of epiphany, well actually no it was an epiphany.    So let me set the scene for you– Camera pans in to Mikey sitting on a bench outside, he is smiling and happily chiseling away at his keyboard.

So I started writing and it was a new story, not a continuation, which it should have been  you know so I could actually finish something.  Oh, like that screen play that is going to hit it big and then allow me to move to Hollywood with all the other lushes and piss my millions away in a penthouse.  But alas it wasn’t, nope new story.  So I think that I subconsciously jump around from project to project.  I think its the same reason behind always eating at a table with an additional chair, just in case someone stops by.  In my mind I think I am afraid of finishing a story because then I can’t alter it when something really great comes along.  I hope that by coming to this realization I will be able to over come it.  I will finish that screen play, that prose, that book of short stories and even that poem I never wrote.  Perhaps I will even finish the multitude of concept albums that I haven’t started (but if you have the concept then hasn’t it sort of started?).  I feel like I am finally starting to come into my own as a… well a person I guess, a man, a writer, a musician, a geek even.  For so long my life has been in neutral, could it be that the only shift I needed was waking up to a new day?  Well I don’t know but I do know that I am starting to admit things to myself which is allowing me to assess the situation and work on a solution.  For example I wrote this post and further more it’s the complete thought I set out to write, guess you have to start somewhere.  Well, until we meet again.

-mikey