As I have talked about before I purchased the game Bioshock and am absolutely loving it. I feel like I get completely immersed in the world of Rapture and feel like I am a part of the story unlike a lot of games that are out there. The funny thing is that I get so into the game that I lose track of time while playing, but I also feel like I have to take a break from playing it because it can be mentally draining for me because I feel that involved with the game. It is one of those games that feels like a movie, but you are getting to play the main part in the movie. I am well into the game and look forward to picking it up again, but skate has my attention right now.
Today as I was cleaning the house I had my iphone with me and was listening to music while I cleaned. Bioshock's main theme came on and it really just drew me in. If anyone knows my music taste I am not one who likes to listen to orchestra/ classical style music, it just isn't my thing. I know for a fact the reason it drew me in is because it started bringing up all those feelings I had while playing the game. My mind went back to what I was doing in the game when that particular music was playing in game. I loved listening to it so much that I went into my albums and found the Bioshock Score that I had downloaded a while back when I found it was free from 2K games. I hadn't listened to it much since I downloaded it, but that was before I was so immersed into the game. Whether or not you can love this score without playing the game I cannot answer, but if you have played the game at all and enjoyed it, you will truly appreciate this free download. Regardless of your involvement with the game, it is definitely worth checking out plus it is free you can't beat that.
Bioshock Score
Friday, September 28, 2007
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Bioshock Score |
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Out of Shape!!! |
I am in a lot of pain right now! I decided to go on a little jog just a little bit ago, Kristee made a deal with me that if I started to exercise daily for 2 months I could buy a skateboard. (I know it is a little bit of bribery, but it does add some motivation.) Some may say, "Aren't you getting a little old for a skateboard." You can never be too old to skateboard. I have a waveboard and love all board sports so I thought I might add to my board sport addiction. (More on that in another post.)
I am not only motivated by getting a skateboard, but also the fact that I want to get back in good shape. I am planning on playing on a church basketball team this winter and really need to get in better shape. Sounds like most of the guys will be younger so I without a doubt need to get in shape just to hang with them. I also know it is what is good for my health.
About once a year I get in the mood to start exercising and I do well for about 3 months or so, but then I get out of routine for one reason or another and go back to being "lazy" about exercise. I really set out each time to make it a "life change", but have yet to really stick to exercising for more than 4 months. I do get into a good routine, but then the smallest change in schedule screws the whole thing up. I am looking once more to making this change and hopefully sticking to it. Maybe posting about my progress every once in a while will help keep me motivated.
As for the jog today, I set out to jog 1 mile and actually made it. Was it easy? NO, I was at about the 3/4 mark when I really started feeling it like no other. My legs felt like they were going to cramp up and give out. My chest felt like it was going to explode, heart and lungs. I couldn't take a deep breathe and felt faint, dizzy and that feeling of I am going to puke. Sounds pleasant doesn't it. I was a mile from home and really started questioning whether or not I was going to be able to make it home. On top of jogging a mile I was also pushing the kids in our double jogging stroller. I know I would have struggled without it, but I know it makes it harder to jog with. I am just know starting to feel a little better and realize how good it was for me to do it. But I must say that while I am out there jogging and it starts getting tough, I start having this mental battle of "You are and idiot why in the world are you doing this, this is the first and last time we are doing this again. Once more Josh you are a moron!" That is what goes on in my head when things start getting tough and I have to push through it all.
In reality I am not sure if I should have pushed myself as far as I did, but then again maybe I needed to, just not sure. In retrospect I am glad I did and would have been disappointed had I not made the mile. The reason for that is the fact that Kristee has been jogging for the past 3 months or so and can jog a mile each time. Me being the extremely competitive person that I am wanted to prove to myself that I too could jog a full mile. Boy was I paying for it, but I know that as I do it more I will be able to go even further and a little more ease.
I plan on starting to lift weights again and hope that I can get back into a good routine of exercising everyday. I will feel better about myself and more importantly be in better shape for doing all those sports that I love so much. I am going to try to use this as a motivational tool and will post updates of my progress and road to better health and getting in shape.
Friday, September 21, 2007
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My Best skate Video Yet! |
I am officially addicted to making movies in skate. I will post a write up about the game after I have some more time with it. But I love being able to make videos and upload them to the web and then download them.
Flip Off Huge Drop from Josh Metts on Vimeo.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
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1st skate Video |
This is my first skate video that I made from the video game skate for the xbox 360. The game allows you to make videos edit and upload them to the web. Found a way to embed it, but am not sure how well it will look.
1st skate Video from Josh Metts on Vimeo.
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Hello Mint, Goodbye Quicken! |
This is an early post/ review about Mint.com new public beta service and it is free. Some may know, but they won the Techcrunch Top 40 $50,000 for web apps just in the last few days. I have only been using the services for 2 days and wanted to give my initial impressions.
They announced at the Techcrunch event that they were going from private beta to public beta. I will first start off and say that I could definitely tell that they were experiencing early growing pains. I am sure that after winning the award and then being put on digg they were hammered with all kinds of new people signing up to give it a try, I was one of them. I have never been happy with Quicken and had recently jumped ship and was using Cha-Ching (a mac only checkbook keeping app). Honestly I can say that I wasn't completely satisfied with Cha-Ching either although I wanted it to be that app that just worked for me. It just came up a little short in what I could do with managing my finances. (Main thing is that transferring money between 2 accounts had too many steps.)
After seeing this on my Techcrunch rss feed I decided that I would check it out. With all kinds of apps going to web based apps I was comfortable trying it out. I actually like the fact that there are certain apps that are available online and I can access all my "stuff" from any computer or device that has access to the Internet. Having said all that, I think that one obstacle that Mint is going to have to face and overcome is getting people to feel safe about giving their financial information to a web based company. Honestly for some reason (maybe I am too trusting) I am not concerned about their security I feel that my information is safe with them and I am willing to take that risk. (if you want to call it that)
Mint does require a few things in order to use their service. As I mentioned before it is free, but does require you to have online access to your banking and credit cards. In order to use it you must login to all your accounts through Mint.com to add your accounts, requiring you to give them your user id and password. From there it goes out and establishes a secure connection, check your user id and password, download transactions and find savings. Since it was hammered with many people trying to get their information on the service the past 2 days has been slow going in terms of adding accounts. As of today I now have all, but 1 credit card (it is a smaller credit card, so it doesn't matter that much) added to my account with Mint. Since there are thousands of credit cards out there they will have to work out the kinks with some companies. It was slow and a little frustrating to get all my accounts added, but I was excited about using the services so it was worth the wait for me. I know with any company going public with an online web app is going to experience some growing pains.
Once all the accounts are added it shows you the balances on all you credit cards, banking accounts and saving accounts. They analyze the transactions and tell you where you are spending most of your money, the most frequently used merchant. (We need to stop going to Costco, LOL) While some of this may be a little frighting to see everything in one place in such detail telling you exactly how well or how bad you are doing financially, it is nice to know. I have kept track of my credit cards, banking and savings accounts in Quicken and Cha-Ching, but neither worked as well as Mint does in showing you just where you are at financially. The other big benefit is not having to manually enter new transactions and reconciling everything every month. Everything is automatically updated 1 a day, I am very excited about this. The other benefit is that if I need to know the balance of a credit card or what I have in my bank account I can go to one place and find out this information for all my accounts.
Apparently they make their money by having relationships with different financial institutions. They analyze different thing that you spend money on and your credit card interest rates and show you offers that will help you save money. As of right now nothing that they have suggested for me has been beneficial, but maybe at some point they will show me an offer that could really help me out. If you are frustrated with your current means of managing your finances and want to try something that is easy and automatic, you really need to give this a try. It is very awesome and I look forward to using it, since this is an early impression I will update as time passes and give more impressions after using it for a more lengthy period.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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Awesome Motorcycle Stunt Video |
At first I thought this was going to be just a guy doing stunts on a bicycle. You know about my recent love for motorcycles. These are all being done on a motorcycle, which makes it that much more awesome. He is doing bicycle style stunts/ tricks on a motorcycle, but as you will see the fact that it is a motorcycle it allows him to do some really amazing tricks and go places you would never dream of going on a bicycle. Really one of the best videos I have seen in awhile.
Friday, September 14, 2007
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Water Ride Owns Little Boy |
This had me rolling. Absolutely hilarious to see this kid get taken out!!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare |
I was fortunate enough to be able to get in on the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta. I actually got my token this past weekend, but since I was out of town I did not get to download it and play it till yesterday. I was so excited to play it because if you have seen any of the videos at all you would know how awesome it looks.
First off let me say that I am glad to see that they have gone into modern combat, personally I was getting a little tired of the WW2 games. They have all been way over done and I just don't care for the weapons. I really like newer type weapons for some reason.
As for the Beta, let me say that it looks amazing. I cannot get over the graphics of the online play. Everything you see just looks incredible, it is hard to believe it is a beta at this point. The beta has really gotten me really excited about the game. I played for about 6 hours last night, now if that doesn't tell you how good it is I don't know what would. I didn't want to put the control down, but realizing that it was 2am I thought it was time to go to bed.
What kept me playing was the overall game play. Some of you know that I am a huge fan of Rainbow 6: Vegas. I love the tactical shooters more than the run and gun type game play that you encounter in Gears of War multiplayer. I love to work as a team and try to plan a route to accomplish whatever the goal might be. One thing that I love about RB6 is the cover system I love how you can press against the wall and pop and shoot, although not realistic I still love it. I knew going in that COD4 would not have a cover system due to realism plus many of the walls can be shot through and you don't want to get hit through the wall. One thing that COD4 does have is the ability to lay on the ground, something that I really wished RB6 had.(very nice getting low and sniping from across the field.) I also like the fact that it is harder to snipe in COD4, so you actually have to practice it to get good at it.
The game play would be a combination of tactical shooter and run and gun, all though I think you are much more successful when you take a more tactical approach. I can pretty much guarantee that if you run out into the open field or and open area you are going to get sniped. (I am speaking from experience.) As in RB6 there is a ranking system which adds to the game play I love being about to rank up. Plus you get new equipment with each rank up just as in RB6. There is also this ability, which I haven't gotten yet, to call in air strikes. When this happens you are notified of an incoming enemy air strike via your radio. It is best to get inside a nearby building that could withstand the air strike. If you get caught out in the open and the helicopter or jets pin point your location you are a goner. (The placement of the strike is determined by the person who called it.) And yes you can take out the helicopters and planes with a rocket launcher if equipped. So far and I hope it stays like this, there are no vehicles like in COD3. I hate it when game makers put vehicles in FP shooters, it is ridiculous and I just can't stand it. I like it when everyone is on foot and using a combination of guns, grenades and other weapons. Honestly from the maps that I have played, there are only 3 so far, there would be any room for vehicles.
The maps all vary and I have grown to love all of them. At first there was one that I didn't like, but as with most maps in games you get familiar with them and you get comfortable with where everything is at. One called Vacant is inside an old office/ warehouse so it is more close quarters combat like in RB6, I love it. You can and will have some shootouts outside the building which is awesome. The next one is called Crash, it is based around a helicopter crash that occurred in the middle of a village that appears to be middle eastern. This one is a combination of indoor combat with outdoor combat, it is what I would invision our armed forces facing when they sweep smaller towns. Players can be anywhere, out in the open, on top of buildings, hiding behind cars, or sniping from inside a building to the open courtyard. The one that finally grew on my is called Overgrown. It is the largest map and has a lot of open field combat, (a lot of sniping) but also has plenty of building to enter into to try to get an advantage. As I have said before I love playing all the maps and love the fact that all three are played just slightly different.
Game modes that are available are Team Deathmatch (12 players), Free for All (every man for himself) (12 players), Team Objective (12 players), and Team Tactical (6 players). I have only played Team Deathmatch and Team Tactical. Team Deathmatch is your typical deathmatch style play. Team tactical as you can see is small team oriented play. One round you play small team deathmatch and the next is search and destroy. One team defends the 2 areas and the other tries to plant a bomb in one of the areas. Both are extremely fun and I cannot wait to explore the other game modes. One thing that they nailed are respawns. You never respawn in the exact same place so it eliminates the spawn camping that happens in RB6. What is awesome is that you will eventually spawn where your opponents originally spawned. It makes it really fair and one team doesn't always have a position advantage over the other.
As you can see I am really impressed with this game and look forward to it's release. As of right now none of my RB6 friends got in on the beta so I really look forward to being able to play it with my friends. It has been a blast to play so far and I really think that this game is going to be a must buy. It is the perfect combination of tactical shooter and run and gun. I am extremely excited about what Infinity Ward has done with this game. Game play is awesome, graphics are absolutely amazing, and they have added things to the online play that just add to the already impressive play. If you get a chance to get in on the beta in the future I would make sure you try it out, definitely worth it.
If you want to check out more videos go to CharlieOscarDelta