a blog about nerdy things

me and judy

For this year’s Halloween, I got dressed up as a zombie butcher and Judy went as the zombie mouse that I found and killed in my kitchen.  Brad and Nicole’s party, dubbed the Butcher Shop, was an insane blast as usual.  They split the party up into groups at the beginning and sent us off on a video scavenger hunt around Fairfax.  I think one of the highlights of the night was when we had to “dance on a grave”!  Try finding a graveyard at 10pm and figuring out how to get sufficient lighting to get the dancing on video!  I’ll try and upload some of the video footage to show off some of the funnier scavenger hunt moments (eg.  Singing “Monster Mash” inside a Wendy’s with help from the employees, walking around like zombies in a grocery store, recreating a scene from a horror movie, etc).

group photo

Tonight, we attended a small potluck get together with some of Judy’s friends.  We brought a really awesome chili that was reminiscent of Cincinatti-style chili but with a hint of chocolate along with some cornbread.  There was some crazy strong sangria there along with a tub of tiramisu, chicken, and spiced apple cider (oh god I love apple cider).  All in all, it was a great Halloween!

chili and cornbread

group photo

Having never played either Fallout 1 or 2, I’m basically starting Fallout 3 oblivious to the inside jokes and references that Bethesda has included in their latest game. But that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying what I’ve played so far! Coming from Bethesda, the game definitely reminds me of Oblivion in terms of the feel and UI. I remember seeing screenshots of the earlier two games, and I’m glad they chose to move from the top-down-at-an-angle perspective to first-person.

One thing I liked off the bat was how they integrated the character creation process with the storyline (if you haven’t played it yet, you’ll see what I mean). It gives it more of that RPG feel, but I sense it could get annoying after multiple game starts. The first level, Vault 101, is your typical get-to-know-the-game type setting where you’re expected to do quick and easy missions in order to familiarize yourself with the UI and game mechanics. I also noticed that the game responded to your situational decisions offering multiple paths for different choices. If you kill a particular person, the storyline is somewhat affected and that gives a good illusion of non-linear play. I haven’t gotten too far yet so we’ll see how far that “non-linearity” goes further into the game. I didn’t have much time to play, so I stopped about when I reached Megaton, a main city in the game outside the vault in the wastelands. Hopefully this weekend will give me more time to mess around and try things out for a better review.

So Judy made this awesome pumpkin curry tonight and served it in a small pumpkin that we had gutted.  I love having an awesome chef for a girlfriend!  The curry tasted just as good as it was presented too!

pumpkin curry

If you have no idea what the keating five scandal is, then you should watch this video.  Don’t ever believe anything you read on the internet without researching it yourself.  This is something that you will find if you have actually done your homework on candidates.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/16/9641/62473/762/599278

Quick list of facts to commonly asked questions republicans will ask democrats.  I’ll try and find one for mccain too so that we provide for both sides of the aisle here.