Just a Lark

Just-A-Lark.com

Not that I blog here often enough to attract many readers right now, but if you are one of the few who stop by you may have noticed the new domain name. 8-Phase.net was an older domain I’d claimed a few years back but it doesn’t really relate to this blog or my personal projects at the moment so I’ve decided to adopt a more sensible domain, and a .com at that. I already own a ton of domains, but this is my first .com for myself, as I’d always preferred .net, but really, .com is where it’s at.

When I first made this blog, I went with a version of the Hemingway Wordpress theme because I liked its sober, simplistic look. But even after the modifications I’ve done to it in the bottom of the page, it’s really quite bland, isn’t it? Plus, the ability to only display two stories at a time was really beginning to bug me. So I’ve decided to scrap the theme entirely and make my own custom one.

It’s been a long while since I’ve designed anything very complex–since back when I was an art student, really–but recently I’ve grown to an entirely new appreciation for the work. At my job, I’m moonlighting as a designer now it seems, as I’m working on some very fun and interesting things for some of our sites, and seeing them go into production for rollout is something I find very rewarding. But besides that, I’d always been used to web design in a very boxy way as of a result of tables and strict HTML. Now that I’ve actually learned proper, modern CSS, the designs that I always wanted to see translated to a web page are within my reach.

Also, it gives me a great chance to work with the Wordpress CMS and better familiarize myself with it, something I’ve already begun through my modifications to Hemingway. I have a rather large personal project I would like to roll out next spring, and to do it I’ll either need to find and adapt an existing CMS or write my own from scratch. Unfortunately, I somehow doubt I’ll find a CMS that will do everything I want it to, and so I’ve already resigned myself to doing it by myself, but either way, this gives me some more experience with the subject.

BioShock

Anyone who knows me can probably tell you that I love System Shock 2; it’s seriously my favorite game of all time. As much as I hate to use the phrase, its “spiritual successor” is out now in the form of BioShock. I’m playing through it and enjoying it immensely, but I won’t gush on that until I’ve beaten it. I bought the collector’s edition for the PC, and my Big Daddy figure has already found his niche in my desk’s ecosphere:

Vivi learns the hard way not to mess with Big Daddy’s Little Sister

I’m really taking my time with it, though this is mostly due to the fact that I’m playing it on my work PC and not at home (my work system is just that much better), and on my first play through I’m saving every Little Sister I encounter. To borrow one of their own terms, I’m going to unzip them on my second play through. Of note, I usually never replay games, despite how many ways they can differ each time, and so declaring that I look forward to playing BioShock again is a big step for me.

If you care about some more thoughts I had on the game, you might take a look at this piece I wrote for GameSpot.

Karaoke

Last night we went on an epic journey that ended up at The Mint, a karaoke bar in the Castro. Today was my boss Eddie’s last day with us (he departed from this world by joining a competing company, and thus is dead to me. I kid, I kid. I wish him the best of luck with his new endeavors!), and so we gathered a group and went from one alcohol-serving place to the next two times over and then sang songs in front of a ton of total strangers. It was quite a motley crew we had, and some genuinely hilarious things went on.

Tasha amazed us with a Janis Joplin song (I don’t remember which one), Eddie sang Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi incredibly well (last time we went he did Wanted Dead or Alive really well too), and Kim sang I’m Too Sexy. Kim, you’re my pal, but as I said last night, you’re never allowed to do that again. Kimberley, as she put it, has a black woman’s voice and did a great rendition of Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin, and I sang Blue Öyster Cult’s (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. I pretty much did the whole SNL cowbell skit up on stage, tapping the mic to the actual cowbell in the song and shaking my head around like I was seizing, and to make things better, I was even wearing the Will Ferrell “More Cowbell” shirt.

Poor Stan got shafted though, as he had to sing Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back. The whole night he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pick a song, and so I filled out a card with his name and that song on it, and then dangled it above his head with the threat that if he didn’t pick a song, I’d turn it in. He did find one, and it was up to Kim to go up to the VJ and turn his card into her, and somehow the card I filled out ended up in her hands. The look he shot me when he heard his name called with that song was one of pure hatred, and all I could do was turn purple in the face and throw up my hands with a “I SWEAR TO GOD I DIDN’T DO IT!” Oh, and we were standing right in front of the VJ’s booth, and she knew if was him, so there’s no way he could have backed down.

I think the big surprise though, was GameSpot’s own news viking Tor Thorsen, who sang Motörhead’s Ace of Spades. Tor’s normally a pretty crazy guy, but I don’t think that any of us was expecting him to hop up on stage and grab the mic with both hands rock star style and sing while making ridiculous poses. It was totally awesome.

I don’t have any pictures of the night unfortunately, but Stan does. He also has video of me singing. Maybe sometime I’ll get ahold of it and post it here. But to sum things up, we all did really, really good with our music. Except for Kayvan. But that’s cause he’s a giant wuss who left before his song could come up. Also, I was drunk, and pretty much everyone else was too, so maybe we all sucked horribly. Whatever, it was fun, and I guess that’s the point.