We express the same things but with different words

I walk down the desolate road, a lonely yet comforting feeling engulfs me. Why am I walking? Where am I going? Questions come and go from my mind like the cars passing by on the street. I continue to walk. I find an opening in the forest along the road which seems to call my name, my legs obey the command and bring my body to the clearing. The sky rumbles, clouds begin to blot out the sun but that doesn't stop some rays from pushing through the milky sheen and hitting the ground around me. I trek through the shades of greens and browns only led my my curiosity and intuition. I can sense a opening…an exit…It begins to rain…The ominous sounds of the forest ignite a slight fear in the back of my mind. I continue forward, pushing through the dense greenery. I’m not sure why I don't turn back, the conditions get worse yet I subconsciously press on. Is it my curiosity for what lies ahead? Or my thirst for adventure? I dismiss both questions as I near what seems like an exit…or is it just another illusion…only time will tell.

Bright and early for the daily races; Going nowhere, going nowhere

My eyes snap open startled by the familiar tone, its time to begin yet another day laden with repetitious actions. I struggle to find motive to get out of bed. I lay there…cold almost thoughtless when the only thing keeping me going comes in the form of a text message. I get to my feet… pushing through the bitter chill I walk to the shower which seems to be radiating the alluring promise of warmth. I jump in. Warm droplets of water cascade around my body making their way to the drain where they are seemingly lost forever. I watch them fall into the holes, but no matter how many recede into the drain the continuous stream of water never seems to let up. Breaking from my reverie, I regain track of time and exit the shower to put the day into full motion. With each step I take I deduce that its another I will retrace the following day. The next few hours go as routine, we all are slaves to a system integrated by all knowing and “wiser” individuals. The bell rings, we get up and go, the bell rings again, we don’t question it. Why would we? its a system we are all entranced by, it gives us safety, order and the promise of getting out at the end of the day. It’s in human nature to seek the stable and not to question what gets us through the day semi content. So why should I be any different? What makes me so special? I’m not, I leave my seat when the bell rings just like everyone else simply because there is no other choice, its the way things are ran and like it or not I'm imprisoned just like the rest of them. I don’t mind though…when that bell rings I know I get to see my reason for pushing through it all, the only reason I’m not insane right now. The minutes pass by like seconds and I once again find myself forced to learn about the mundane and the uninteresting. Then the familiar tone sounds once more. I gather my belongings and head forward to the promise of happiness and peace with the one I love. However I know I'll be back…none of us can stop the routine…we are all victims and and we are all participants…some enjoy it, others dread it, all we can do is find a vice to get us through the strenuous day…I found mine…did you find yours?

Seasons Change

I really don’t even know why I'm attempting to write this blog because rationalizing my mindset right now is next to impossible but ill give it a shot…

Lately my life has changed so much that even I lost track as to how it all happened. A few months back I would have never predicted where I would be right now and that's what scares me the most. Life seems like such a linear progression, we all go through the motions of our day to day lives, each day doing things we enjoy to balance out the things we are forced into and often despise. Its a process that we’ve all become accustomed to and its a process that I wanted to break ever since I was a child. A few months ago it seemed like I could take a simple glance around a room and tell you where everyone was headed, life seemed so predictable, so dull…yet through it all I was always “Happy”. Everyday seemed as though I was just trying to get by, passing through life like a blur and not truly enjoying it. I often wondered why I thought this way and why I was so “blissful”.

Things have changed so much since then, and though I remained who I am at my core, my entire mindset has changed and it seems as though meaning was actually brought to my life. Its a weird feeling to describe but its an amazing one. No longer am I looking at the common path that everyone shares through life, or how despite warning we make the same mistakes over and over again. It feels as though I’m drifting away from those questions my mind used to dwell on so often, the questions that sometimes brought me sleepless nights, and moving towards realizing just how amazing life can be. This is a realization that a mere 3 months ago seemed like i would never have. Never would I of thought that such a simple event as meeting a person, would be able to have such an impact on ones life. Even though i still feel that there is no greater meaning to our existence, I can say that without a doubt you can make your own meaning to your own life and in the end that all that really matters, being happy with who you are and who you influence.

Focusing on the here and now, my mind tries to sort though everything that happened to me recently and I come up with the same reoccurring thought... it feels like I might have found what it means to be truly happy and not just the ignorant blissfully stupor I was in months ago. This is a feeling that it quite comforting and reassures me for my future. A future that once seemed so predictable, but now…anything seems possible.

“What the hell is that kid doing?”

Another day another chance to make people stare with puzzlement as I attempt flips and kong tables…good times…Anyway i woke up late today (as always) to find out that my cousins are over my house and in my pool for what was a surprise visit to me, i always seem to be out of the family loop. After working a bit and brainstorming ideas i decided to go for a run a bit earlier then i normally do. It must of been the music i was listening to because after about 2 hours of parkour at my local park and 1 hour of pure running  i was still out and about and looking for more. I guess it could of also been the fact that it was pretty stormy today,  I enjoy it a lot, looking up at the violent sky with the wind nearly screwing up my jumps, its much better than 90 degree weather with sun beating down relentlessly in my opinion. Anyway it got too dark to even see more than 10 feet so i headed home free running the whole way, it was a lot of fun but i was kind of annoyed that i forgot to head over to my friends house for a surprise visit but i was hot, tired and needed a shower but lets stop there. Now I'm home and thinking about making a video to a song i just found but my friend Louie wants to use my idea for said video in “Fluffy Bunny” so i guess i wont waste it on a random movie about nothing. Also I'm having thoughts about bringing back the widely loved “Game Nights” i used to host on Halo 3, they were good times except for when it lagged but i might rethink and relaunch them.  So yeah nothing to eventful today but overall a fun day. Now i will leave you with your thoughts and this interesting fellow showing you how to get laid. You can buy the T-Shirt  here. I expect money for this shameless advertising BustedTees. Crap! I did it again!

The Golden Warthog

Interesting day today, got a good amount of work done on “Exodus” and I got accepted into the Xbox Live Preview program so i got the new Xbox August 11th update a week or two early. To those that are interested there is nothing groundbreakingly new but some interesting additions. The ability to rate games and downloads, 360 games on demand, netflix video parties, friend list sorting and the avatar marketplace just to name a few. I was going to make a video of the new features but its not worth it, if you have any questions shoot them my way ill help you out. So that’s all pretty cool but in other news i went parkouring today in the 85 degree weather…that was fun…hardly anyone was at the park I went to but i pretty much mastered that place and need a new training spot… Anyway yeah listening to a lot of Rise Against Lately, got their discography, completely legally of course, and besides there first album most of their songs are really good. I advise you to check them out if you don't listen to them already. So that's pretty much today in a nutshell (I know Tyler would probably say “who the hell says nutshell) well i do Tyler well not really but today i did!…Also a new Jake and Amir came out today good stuff watch it if you want a laugh. Oh and lets not forget the best part of the new Xbox update…..RC warthogs. Yeah its useless, but i bought one and its awesome! I also got bored and made a short clip of it :) check it out. Ok blog post done. Later.

The Past, the Present and the Fragmented Memory…wait what?

Another legit blog today that's like two days in a row….i should win something… Anyway, its time to take a trip down memory lane, back 1 year to a simpler time…well not really but still. A little over a year ago Louie and I had this idea for a story, we were into Machinimas and wanted to make our own. The idea was to focus all out effort to make something bigger better and more intricate than anything that was available. It would be like no other and push the boundaries of the medium…. but that was a lot to hope for especially because we had no experience. However after taking a break from what we code named “Fluffy Bunny” and working on “The War on Terror” which was supposed to be a social studies project for my teacher Mr. Moreno…but if you had him you would know why that never happened. Anyway… doing that machinima showed me a lot, like the fact that some of my actors *cough* Louie *cough* have to speak louder and more clearly… but other then voice issues here and there The War on Terror came out pretty much the way i wanted it to and thanks to the positive feedback of all you guys on facebook, we decided to push forward with “Fluffy Bunny”.

After about a month of returning to work on “Fluffy Bunny” we realized pulling off what we wanted to would be a lot harder then we thought, it got to the point where we became lost within our own work multiple times..but you gotta crawl before you can walk or in our case run upside down on the wing of a flying plane…yeah things get complicated sometimes but we’re working on it. At this point we realized that  flushing out all the events and planning everything would take a good amount of time and i wanted to get content out as early as the beginning of this upcoming school year…Thus “Exodus” was born or at least that's what I'm calling it for now because I'm not 100% on a final name. Exodus is a more action oriented machinima but it has similar depth to that of its brother machinima “Fluffy Bunny” (you can see we like code names). Now working on two projects at the same time Louie is taking his time with “Fluffy Bunny” while I work on “Exodus”. Mine is a bit easier to understand and write for so the series should start this fall, while FB will most likely begin in 2010 after Exodus raps up its first season but we’re trying not to rush things.

So that's where we stand today “Transcendence Films” working on 2 projects at once… well technically 3 if you count our upcoming comedy based in real life but that's more of “just for fun” thing than anything. If my friends still want to do it, haven't  spoke with them in awhile i should probably get on that…

Hello World

This is my first actual blog post thats not writing about media or games…kind of feels weird. Anyway I'm not to sure what to talk about but I'm sure i can find something to discuss to sedate my boredom at nearly 2 in the morning… I guess we can start with my Halo Machinima or i should say “our” Halo machinima’s… me and my friend Louie are working side by side on two different projects and both of them are no jokes… there pretty much up there with the “digitalph33rs” of the world and if all goes well “JonCJG” might have some new competition. Then again does competition really matter when your not making any money and its basically all for the fans? Anyway both projects, which at the moment will go unnamed, will be filmed and edited in 720p HD and as of right now both have very interesting plots and back stories and if done correctly rival that of stories from big budget movies. If you take a look at my first machinima “The War on Terror” which is on the net now, you can see that we don't just sit in front of our TV with a cell phone camera cursing at each others in game characters and calling it a Halo machinima. I like to think we take the whole thing very seriously and use it as a form of self reflection in many ways…. Anyway more talk on those two projects at a later point, lots of back-story development and tiny details to get through before ill have more to say. In something completely unrelated however today i found the sickest advertisement evar! Well at least i think so because I'm into parkour but check it on youtube anyway its sick…not to mention that the first modern warfare 2 multiplayer footage was released today or yesterday by time this blog is posted, check it out its pretty awesome. Ok…first blog post done and i think its time for me to get back to work on my projects…oh! enjoy this cat t-shirt from threadless i thought it was “interesting”… Alright peace!

 

My Most Anticipated Games

Check out this montage i put together of the games i look forward to the most.

The War on Terror – Transcendence Films first Machinima

What started out as a social studies project, turned into a 7 part mini series about "The War on Terror". All the parts of the movie are embedded below in order but if you want to view it in full screen and HD, head over to our fan page on Facebook. Transcendence Films Fanpage. Check it out and comment to let me know what you think. Enjoy!

The War on Terror - HD Trailer

Check out the trailer to our first machinima "The War on Terror" embedded below.

Xbox 360 at E3 2009

Tons of games, trailers and ideas were shown at this years E3 2009 Microsoft Press Conference, but I'm going to do my best to sum everything up as clear as possible.

New Reveals

Microsoft’s Project Natal launches a new generation of controller allowing you to play games, chat, move through the dashboard watch movies and more by using only your hands and body.

Check out the reveal trailer here or get more information here, and from what I've seen so far, it is as good as it looks. Also check out an interactive AI named milo created by lionhead studios using Project Natal.

Facebook and Twitter come to Xbox live! Yes both social networking sites will be integrated fully with Xbox live. This means that you can view your friends updates post to your wall view pictures and video and even take in game screenshots and upload them to your wall. Check out the demonstration video of how it works here. Or if you want the facts go here.

Last FM Comes to Xbox Live. You will now be able to stream music from the popular music site last FM, mark your favorites and have it track what music you like best all from your Xbox 360. Get more info here.

Live Media Sharing. When this update hits xbox live worldwide you will be able to share media with up to the 8 friends in your party including HD 1080p video music, pictures and more.

Avatar Marketplace hits Xbox Live. Soon the Avatar marketplace will become available and allow you to download shirts pants and entire costumes for use with your avatar. Master chief army assemble!

Game Reveals and Trailers

Important Game Reveals were, Halo 3 ODST Gameplay, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Crackdown 2, Forza Motorsport 3, Splinter Cell Conviction and finally the reveal trailer for a brand new Halo game called Halo:Reach which takes place before the events of any bungie made halo game to date. trailer embedded below. Multiplayer beta coming with Halo 3 ODST.

Much more happened at E3 but these are the basic features and games that were revealed and will be hitting your xbox sometime in the summer/fall. Enjoy!

Got Mythic?

The mythic map pack is finally available on the Xbox Live Marketplace as DLC. If you need more information on this map pack before you put down the 800 MS points or if you already have the maps but want to know everything you can about them your in the right place. Read below for everything Mythic Map Pack.

Click Here to download The Mythic Map Pack now for 800 MS Points.

Want a fancy new theme for your dashboard? Here is the Mythic Map Pack Premium Theme for 250 MS Points.

If you already purchased the Mythic Map Pack keep in mind that if you play the maps in the Mythic Playlist you are automatically awarded a complimentary subscription to Bungie pro. Which will help you share the content you make with the new maps.

Want more from the Mythic maps? Jump over to bungie’s new project page where the highest rated community made maps can be viewed and downloaded to further expand your gaming experience.

To sum it all up, The Mythic map pack, including Sandbox, Orbital and Assembly can be downloaded now off the marketplace. In addtion to that playing them in matchmaking gives you a complimentary Bungie pro subscription and your shot at earning all the new mythic map achievements.

Still undecided about the Mythic Maps? Check out this HD trailer showing them off at their best.

The Behemoth Teases New Title

Check out the new teaser trailer for Behemoth's upcoming game, which is in such an early build it still has no name.The game is an extremely early build but looks to focus more on the co-op side of things as Behemoth is starting to be known for and seems to have a certain little big planet feel to it. It should be interesting to see what direction they are going to go in for the art style and gameplay. The game is expected to hit XBLA in 2010..hopefully...

iPhone 3.0 Firmware Update FTW!

 

Cutting right to the chase the new iPhone firmware 3.0 set to hit itunes this summer looks to be far better than expected. Packing over 100 new features and tons more for the developers. Here's the rundown of some of the key features.

• COPY AND PASTE :: You double tap on a piece of text and it will automatically places bubble above it with the option to cut, copy or paste the current selection. To bring up the paste option, you just have to double tap again. To make a bigger selection of text, double tap and then drag where you’d like the text to end. You can also drag this text around. To undo a paste, just shake your phone!

• You can now send more than one photo by copying and pasting them into the Mail app.
• 3.0 unlocks  Bluetooth in 2g iPod touches and allows for wireless Bluetooth peer to peer connections for things like gaming file sharing and more.
• Use landscape (wide keyboard mode) in applications SMS, notepad, mail etc.
• New message app supports MMS! (Major gripe about the iPhone fixed!) Send and received photos through the network.
• New 1st party app Voice memos which allows you to record edit, share and email directly from the app
• New calendar support :: gcal Subscriptions, .ics format, exchange
• Stock app added news and more details.
• Search in Mail as well as other applications: Contacts, notes, calendar, iPod
• New Spotlight home screen that will let you search all of your applications.
• YouTube improvements :: allows for  ratings, subscriptions and profiles
• Notes sync with iTunes, Shake to shuffle, WiFi auto-login, Stereo Bluetooth, parental controls, call log, iTunes account creation, anti-phishing, meeting invitations and more.

• Push notification for apps — Alerts appear like SMS, badges show up on the app icon, and audio alerts will be heard in the background. The battery life is said to only decrease by 23% while on other devices using background processes killed the battery life 80% (my favorite addition)

…ill be here counting the seconds to its release…

Gears 2 Map Pack 2 coming March 31, title update hitting March 24

On March 31, the title's second batch of DLC, entitled the "Snowblind Map Pack," will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace , bringing four new maps to the table: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard and Fuel Depot, a remake of a map from the original Gears.

Possibly more exciting then this news, Epic also announced that they will be getting rid of their current ranking system into a “more intuitive, experience point-based system”. Players will earn experience points for scoring in public matches, rising up to level 100 and even unlock achievements at set levels (5, 15, 25, 50 and 100). This update hits Gears about a week before the news maps on march 24th.

Peggle and Crystal Defenders hit the XBLA this week

This Wednesday, Pop Cap Game’s long awaited title Peggle, along with Square Enix’s Crystal Defenders will be hitting the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft points or $10 each.

Split/Second debut trailer looks to give Burnout a run for its money

Ever Since i watched the movie Death Race, I always wondered what a next gen game similar to that would be like and now it looks like I'm getting my answer. Last night during Game Trailers TV our first look at at Pure developer Black Rock Studio's upcoming racing title, Split/Second was shown. It looks like Split/Second, like Death Race, will be placing your destructive racing action in front of a televised audience for all to see.

Hinted in the trailer Split/Second will also allow players to trigger real time events that have the potential of wiping out your opponent in seconds or even your self if your not careful… Check out the trailer linked below to get a better example of what this game entails.

Spit/Second Trailer on GTTV

One Billion Served!

At exactly 6:36pm PST, in a three minute and nineteen second game of Infection on Foundry, four players participated in Halo 3's one billionth match. That's a crap load of matches and i think its safe to assume those 4 players got recon armor. Some other interesting tidbits bungie released is the fact that halo 2 still has yet to reach the 1 billion mark and that in total there is currently a total Matchmaking Playtime of 2,023,153,340,764 seconds that's over 64,000 years of combined playtime in matchmaking and counting…they go on to shoot out some perspective facts as well, shown below.

64,000 years ago:

• Neanderthal walked the Earth.
• Modern Man had yet to set foot in Asia.
• The Battle Rifle was Hitscan.

Zero Punctuation's Review of Fear 2 hits the interwebs

Zero Punctuation's Latest review of Fear 2 once again informs you about a game and its flaws by using quirky animation, fast paced speech, and of course that fantastic accent. Check out the Review of Fear 2 embedded below.

Xbox Live Arcade Awards voting kicks off March 3rd

Voting for the second annual XBLA Awards opens up this tuesday March 3rd and will end on March 10th. The voting will be done via the Xbox Live Spotlight channel in the NXE. So if you are one of those people that thinks Braid was a really bad game and doesn't deserve any of the awards it was nominated for...please vote and vote wisely. Click the link below to check out the nominees for each category over at Major Nelsons blog.

Xbox Live Arcade Awards Nominees

Mass Effect 2 is coming...

No words...watch the trailer and all will be clear... well not really but still..Mass Effect 2 i need not say more.

Overlord sequel? Hell Yeah!

Regardless of the fact that I was not a fan of this game and the fact that most people I knew disliked this game as well, we are still getting an Overlord 2! So minority fans rejoice your getting a second overlord to play with! No news on when this game is coming out, other than sometime in June, but alongside the debut announcement a nice little trailer has emerged and is embedded below in HD for your viewing pleasure.

Prince of Persia's Epilogue DLC

Today has been big in the way of DLC news as yet more news about DLC has come to light. Prince of Persia's "Epilogue" DLC will respectively put players right after the end of Prince of Persia's main story line. New abilities and new adventures are to gain when this comes out on February 26th to the XBLM and PSN. Check out the trailer for this new DLC embedded below.

Capcom teases new title reveal

Looks like Capcom is teasing a brand new game, which it seems we wont get any information on until we get our first look at the announcement trailer which apparently arrives on Xbox Live on Feb. 23. Stay tuned this may just be worth while.

Mirror's Edge:: Pure Time Trials DLC out now!

New in the Xbox Live Marketplace this morning is the new Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trials DLC set at 800 MS points or $10. The pack gives the player 9 new time trial challenges along with 7 new maps each boiling down mirrors edge gameplay to its purest forms, no cops no guns no city just pure aesthetics, agility and flow. A video featuring the seven new maps is embedded below if your not sure about plopping down the 800 points just yet.

Reflection :: A Halo 3 Montage

Today was a pretty slow day in terms of interesting gaming news, unless of course you count the GTA DLC controversy but i'd rather not blog about male genitalia...so I decided to dig into my vault of awesomeness and pick out one of my favorite montages of all time. Nice gameplay coupled with great music and awesome editing really makes this montage stand out from the rest. Check out the HD version embedded below. Oh and feel free to check out that GTA video if thats the kinda thing your into...I don't discriminate against alternative life styles...at least thats what i keep telling myself.

New Red vs Blue series emerges "Relocated"

Looks like Rooster Teeth has yet another red vs blue series up its sleeve! Red vs Blue Relocated, is a mini series meant to bridge the gap between Reconstruction and there next unannounced series. This mini series will be more about the comedy and idiocy rather than a thick plot so if you prefer it that way get your fill while it lasts. The first part of Relocated is embedded below and the second part can be found here both are in HD.

AFRO SAMURAI: Demo available now

Freshly delivered to the marketplace this morning we have the AFRO SAMURAI Demo, featuring some pretty gory game play and some intense action sequences. Check out the HD Trailer Here or just make the jump and download the free demo now and give it a try for your self.

GTA IV: Lost & Damned out now!

If you have a spare 1600 MS points or $20 lying around then your in luck because the new GTA DLC has just been released into the marketplace for that exact amount! Take on this new expansion head on with its 2 new mutiplayer modes expanded story line, new main characters and not to mention the free week of GTA mutiplayer from Microsoft to all the fans that dont have live. If any of this sounds appealing to you don't hesitate to make the jump over to the Xbox live marketplace and pick this up now.

GTA 4: Lost & Damned - Download now

Mario vs Spartan

Posted over at the Bungie blog earlier today was the second installment of Mario vs Spartan a short film made back in the days of halo 2. There are really no words to describe this other than completely and utterly EPIC so you might as well just watch it, as I've even been so kind to embed it below, in high quality, for your viewing pleasure.

Arcade Game of the week - Death Tank

This weeks Xbox Live Arcade Game is a game called Death tank. It will go for 1200 MS points and features 1-4 local mutiplayer and up to 8 online in a fast paced, realtime,"worms" style game. Want to see more? Check out the trailer for it embedded below or vist the offical game page here.

New Blog!

I have been blogging with Windows Live Journal for a while now and have decided that Blogger.com is more compatible and more suitable for my every day needs. So welcome to my new blog where i will be talking about topics ranging from, new tech to gaming to current events so i hope you all enjoy, and because i want to test how to embed video here, you can now enjoy the history of the internet embedded in HD :)