i ordered after life a couple weeks ago and watched it again tonight.

i love this movie. it's definitely my new favorite movie.

so i have a couple minutes to catch up with my blog before getting back to work. saturday was the cover to cover show at the nucleus, and it was pretty sweet. there were three paintings in particular that i loved, and i'm looking forward to picking up some prints of them later. cool show, cool concepts and it was packed (seems to be the trend now).

i had a pretty big decision to make a couple weeks ago, as i was presented with an opportunity to join the amazingly talented team at project offset, doing some coding for their upcoming game. they have just signed with a major publisher (i don't think i can divulge any details), and their next-generation engine is incredible, with real-time motion blur and per-object soft shadowing and self-shadowing, along with some impressive creative tools to boot. khang is doing concept art there and recommended me, which i am grateful for. it's a very cool team but after a few nights of thinking, i realized i'm at the point in my life where i shouldn't take it on. i have too many projects (which i am trying to wrap up) as well as my full-time (pretty much 2 full-times), and i'm valuing any glimmer of free time that comes up. once these projects are done, i'm going to do a lot of travelling. here's some of the amazing art by steve and khang:

in those wee moments of free time, i'm still enjoying the DS and can't praise it enough. it's perfect right before passing out after a long day of work, because the games don't have the crazy level of depth that most current-gen console games have, so they're easy to just pick up and play for a little while. castlevania dawn of sorrow was pretty much a perfect platformer. i hope the next one brings back the whip. i just got trauma center: under the knife, which is an addicting surgery game that lets you use the stylus to incise, excise, drain, and perform other surgeonly (?) tasks on patients, while crazy anime doctors and nurses are shouting at you on the top screen. tran got me final fantasy IV (2 in the U.S.) for my birthday, and it's awesome so far! there's a bunch of games coming out starting next month that i'm looking forward to...

i've added beth bradley as yet another member of my chico/durham friend list. man, those towns have produced some quality folk! quality folks. quality people?

thursday night i got to catch up with von at giovannis, and it was awesome to hear all the stories from japan. i miss that guy! he's flying back to shikoku for another year or two today, but i'll stay at his place in november when i visit. it was nice to catch up, and feel that everyone is the same. after about 15 seconds it felt like old times. especially at gio's. ok peace out...

i need to know what it tastes like again.

the mars volta's new album amputechture will be out september 12th! i just listened to the first single "vicera eyes" and i totally dig it. you can listen to it here. you can also see the tracklisting on their site... it seems that it is a requirement this year to have "vicarious" in the name of your title track if you are a prog band... interesting.

someone has been stealing mine. i'm down to my last one. i think i'll put it in the trunk or something, so that all four tires will at least match. maybe it's a secret admirer! of hubcaps. maybe not.

still practicing... nice little desert scene:

i've been doodling and sketching again, in preparation for a very exciting project. everything is pretty crappy, it's going to take me a good while to get back in shape. it's been so long since i've drawn, even my wrists aren't used to this (they're guitar wrists now). if these were drawing push-ups, i can only do about 5... must work out. some super-deformed, super-loose fun:

a couple nights ago nick, jenn and i went to hakata ramen in gardena. man oh man, it was the best ramen i've had! that's saying a lot, compared to the excellent places in little tokyo. mmm so tasty...

also i was able to pickup some (very) basic japanese conversations amongst the staff, which was awesome - motivation to keep up the studying. there were some children's drawings and letters on the wall, and i could read them too! but i couldn't understand all the words. cool.

friends, family, cheese, chips, rice, chicken, cake, ice cream, muffins, videos, music, beer, soda, wine, piano, singing, drumming, stories, farbad, basketball, naps, kirby, worlds collide... good day.

i just finished the entire "hajime no ippo" series after watching a couple episodes a night for a long time now. this has been such an enjoyable series full of character, heart, substance and quality. it's a show about boxing, but to be more specific, it's a show about the power of spirit. i loved it - definitely up there as one of the best anime series. thanks tran, for the recommendation (and the episodes!).

thursday night jamie and i headed out to the pasadena city college to see an art show in which drew roullete (bass player of dredg) contributed some pieces. obviously, that's why we went. the gallery was tiny, but there were some really cool paintings (including drew's). we were hoping to see him there and possibly catch up a bit after jamie interviewed him a short while ago for kotori, but we got too hungry and had to go get some food.

all is not lost, musically, for i scored some tool tickets. the house of dork will watch them at the staples center in september, and it will NOT be general admission, which is excellent, because there is nothing worse than seeing a tool show amidst tool 'fans.'

we've been playing a lot of basketball recently thanks to the lovely, 6-court, air-conditioned, hardwood-floored, fiberglass-backboarded, (almost) always open cal tech basketball gym. the discovery of this gym (and it's open door) has been a blessing. my shin splints have been acting up, but they come and go, and it's worth it. my shot is coming back (last time felt excellent), my heart rate is up, and my weight is down.

yesterday we spent the day driving around the beach towns of LA (santa monica, venice, marina del rey, hermosa, manhattan) apartment hunting for beth. it was a good, lazy day. driving, walking, laughing, sleeping, ice cream, movie, done. zzz...