Paste an ad on my Butt for money? Well heck I guess so!

During my morning web news hunt, I came across Freecar.com. It seems you can now apply to get a free car that has advertising painted on it. If you fit their demographic, you sign a few papers and boom, nice new fancy-ad-painted car in your lap. What can I say, I filled out the questionaire and took my shot. I love free stuff. :)

I've discovered something interesting about my job that I don't think I realized before. It's kind of hard to describe, because the best way I can describe it isn't accurate. I'll give it a shot. I can do anything I want to do. This is immediately an inaccurate statement. But it is also true from certain philisophical viewpoints. Back when I was in college, I discovered something about myself. I tend to start a though process heading in one direction. As I am going in that direction I see an important off-ramp and head down it changing direction. On that road of thought, I see another important road and turn there too. I usually end the though process in a completely different direction than where I started. In some ways, this applies to my path through life, but lets not get too deep here. In any case, if you've ever heard me tell a story, you've probably noticed I shoot off into the details and it takes me awhile to get back to the point. When I discovered this, I named my music publishing company 'Perpetual Tangents'. I've always been proud of this quirk. It keeps things interesting.

The hard part is taking those tangents that I so enjoy and stretching them out into something productive. Now what I wonder is where I was heading when I started the previous paragraph. Perhaps it will come to me later. :)

-Jeffg
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/28/2000 12:18:00 PM

Weekend Relaxin

Spent the weekend doing very little cept playin games. Had to ferry Steph to her massage Saturday and had to do it at an ugly hour of the morning (9am) but by the time I got home I wasn't sleepy. So I sat down and dove into my latest obsession, Jagged Alliance 2. What you say? Not Diablo II? Not Everquest? Not some other damn game? Nope.

Screenshots!


Jagged Alliance 2 and all of its predecessors are fantastic games. In JA2, you are hired to liberate a small country from a ruthless dictator. Your assets are the ability to hire mercenaries to do the job and direct them through the campaign. The great part is that each merc has a unique personality. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they don't. And there's tons of em to choose from so you can play and replay the game and still have fun by choosing different mercs. Combat is turn based so no overtensing, I can kick back, stop playing at a whim when something interestin on tv pops up (it does happen occasionally). Just a fantastic game altogether.

I may have a chance to get the music out of my head again soon. If your not a composer of music, that may sound like an odd statement. I am always listening to music. Always. It takes effort and distraction to keep me from listening to music, a good show, movie, game or activity. Even when active though, if my brain finds idle time it cranks up the music. NOTE: I have no cd player (well not anymore some idiot stole it during Simucon) no massive collection of cds, no portable radios or mp3 players. I just hear music. If it's not music that already exists in the form of prerecorded tunes, it's music I make up. Sometimes, the only way to get music out of my head is to sit down and write it down. There are also times when I have to squeeze my head to get it out when I want it out (this is not a physical thing, its a metaphor). Lately, I've been idle on the composition ticker. I changed quite a bit from where I was when I left college (a musician without a job) to where I am now (a game developer with musicians mindset). It's been an odd journey. I wonder sometimes where the next road will lead.

-Jeffg
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/24/2000 12:35:00 AM

New X-Men Member Spotted!

Sometimes, ya just gotta surf the web. Without going into what I was looking for, here is what I found. Check it out, you won't regret it!

-Jeffg
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/20/2000 12:24:00 PM

Where did I leave my puppet strings?

So I, like many of my friends, have taken the Keirsey Temperment test. I've done it before as well as variations. In fact, I believe that all of my friends take these tests about every 6 months. It goes through everyone like wave or perhaps a friendly visiting comet. All it takes is one friend to do it and you can just watch them all sneak off and return later proclaiming they are (insert arcane 4 letter oddly spelled acronym here). This is usually enough to tweak the curiousity of others and it grows like a fungus from there.

Well, friends... romans... countrymen. I have journeyed down this road in the past and always came out something like I expected. Usually, I am Healer(INFP) or Counselor(INFJ)... (keep in mind I barely know what the letters are. I have to read the explanations and comparitive figures from history) or in the medieval variants Benevolent Ruler. Well, it seems with age comes growth and change.

Today, I came out as Mastermind(INTJ). Fear me! Yes, it seems I have been carefully plotting my rise to power for some time now. If you are reading this, it is too late to stop me now (unless perhaps if we as a race develop our mutant gene). Feeling wronged by your job? Surprised by an act of kindness? Worry not for it is all as I have planned! Yes my friends it is true. But wait... there is more to come and only I know what it will be. Muhahahahaha!

Jeff
(brushing the dust off his Illuminatus membership card)
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/19/2000 08:46:00 PM

Move it or Lose it

It's movin time! Well... not yet but it will be in a few months. Steph and I are making our way out of the spacious yet recently overpriced Remington apartments to a new place as yet undetermined. In our search I came across a nice area that is even closer to work than where we are now. But to my shock, they have a maximum income limit. yes.... MAXIMUM. I have never encountered such a thing. Well I considered asking them if having a decent income with a massive debt would still qualify but decided against it. Damn. The search continues.

What is the Starcube? Is it anything like the Timecube? Ask Nintendo.

-Jeffg


posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/18/2000 11:31:00 AM

X-Men

We saw X-Men last night. It was great.

No, you don't understand. IT WAS GREAT!!!

Hollywood has a way of taking comic book characters and just plain ruining them. They usually make them campy, with throwaway lines that make you wanna puke, with many long overdone scenes where 'the common man' reacts to the weird strange things that the superhero's do, with the main character 'coming to grips' with his own powers instead of just dealing with them. Hollywood makes me sick. It's a wonder they ever manage to get the good movies out the door.

Well they got one out with X-Men. Whoa. It's so good, I went home and dreamt super hero dreams (which you may read in the Dreams section).

In other news, I defeated Diablo today. He was so overpowered I had to teleport to town about 20 times while using a cheezy method of curse casting to make him hurt himself over and over. I had to due this because I could not survive a single hit from him. How annoying. Blizzard makes this awsome game, but occasionally goes overboard on the balance of combat side. Also, when I completed the game, it gave me 75 seconds to wrap up before it restarted. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! I didn't even have time to get back to town and talk to all the NPCs to here what they had to say. More annoying. It's still better most crap out there though and that may be something.

Off to dinner... -Jeffg.

posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/15/2000 10:24:00 PM

Back in the Slot

Back from my vacation. It was fun but home is home and I feel more comfortable on my own stompin grounds.

Tonight is X-men. This just might be the first Marvel adaption that doesn't suck. But I don't want to jinx it so nuff about that.

The mini grind has got me in a lull. All my projects are small, technical and uninspiring. Hopefully, I'll be getting to another hill on the roller coaster soon.

Have you fathomed the TimeCube? Pray that you have or doom awaits!

Jeff

posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/14/2000 05:02:00 PM

Vacation In Texas

I thought I'd take a break from the devestation heat that is provided free of charge by the sun in Texas, to show you where I am spending most of my time. I am parked at my Dad's place on Cedar Creek Lake in the great state of Texas. This is basically a kick back and relax vacation. I've got no agendas, no 'things' I want to accomplish, no places I gotta go. Just hanging out with my family and friends that I can lure out to the lake.

My Dad's Lakehouse

My Dad's Dock

My dad's house is awesome. That's a hottub behind the fence on the left. The dock provides a nice place to sit out on the water for casual fishin. I myself have hauled in 4 or 5 catfish in just my first two days (one was even a keeper).

My sister and brother-in-law dropped in today which is why you get to see pictures. She's got a cool digital cam with the floppy disk. They also have a jetski. I doubt I'll give it a ride cause I didn't come out with any swim gear, or the necessary tools I require to get myself out of deep water (this requires a ladder, wet shoes or scuba flippers depending on the situation). Last time I rode a jetski, I paid 50 bucks for 30 minutes. I fell off after 10 minutes and never was able to get back on the thing. I got picked up by one of those boats that pull the floating banana. No really ya have to see em to know what I mean.

While relaxing out of the sun, I stumbled on a pbs series called Liberty! This is a way cool series. I don't know when exactly I became interested in the American Revolution but I find myself more and more fascinated by it. It all started with a goofy musical called 1776. Well it turns out it is not so goofy as it appears upon first glance. The dramatization of the creation of the Declaration of Independance is well done and inspiring. The music is even good too once you get over the cringe factor of seeing people in 18th century American garb dancing around singing that are not that far from filk songs. Believe it or not, I have watched this musical over 50 times. Another newer entry into the drama of the American Revolution is The Crossing, an A&E production starring Jeff Daniels as George Washington chronicling the crossing od the Delaware River. It's fantastic! I don't know why but the whole of the times really takes me in. What it must have been like to be an ordinary man in extraordinary times.

Lunch is callin, so wrap up time. Later friends.
-Jeffg
posted by Jeff Gatlin at 7/02/2000 03:25:00 PM