BruceHartman.net

Measured. If I had to pick a word to describe my experience with Cormac McCarthy so far, the word is measured.

Some reviewers have described him as stark or sparse. That’s like calling Kurt Vonnegut simple.

I listened to The Road during the drive to my Grandmother’s house in October. I didn’t know much about the book or the author, but I figured it was appropriate to listen during a road trip. It was fantastic. I’m glad I listened to it then, because I just now discovered that it’s an Oprah’s Book Club selection—which is usually enough to put me off a book begin with. Forget even judging a book by its cover.

It’s the story of a father and son in the not too distant apocalyptic future. The story is an account of their journey to the ocean. As I said, I thought it was fantastic. Tight, quiet; yes, even stark… but in very a special sort of way. Hardly a word is wasted.

Right now I’m listening to No Country For Old Men. I requested it from the book club as soon as I figured out he was the author of the book the Coen’s were adapting for the film. I’m nearly though it. It doesn’t hurt that the narrator is probably my all time favorite. Tom Stechschulte (1, 2, 3) is a gifted reader whose voice is particularly suited to the story. His characterizations are perfect.

I’m truly looking forward to seeing the movie. Just as Stechschulte is perfect as the reader, I think the Coen’s are perfect for the film adaptation and I think the casting is just about the best ever.

Hopefully I can get in on the beta of SyncTV. Presupposing an app like this works as it should, I can envision a very near future where I’m not paying Comcast nearly $80 a month for hundreds of channels that I don’t watch.

When are these media companies going to get it?

Supposedly the XBox live platform is going to have an IPTV service shortly as well. This isn’t going to bode well for traditional cable providers either. The only problem is going to be when these cable/broadband providers start to hold users to ridiculously low bandwidth thresholds. I’ve already been warned once by Comcast for “excessive usage.” I’m not going to get into the “unlimited use” argument.

Hopefully though, that won’t be an issue soon. Last Thursday when I came home from work there was a flier on my door from Verizon advising me that they’ll be laying cable in my neighborhood. So, maybe I’ll get lucky and have access to fiber early in 2008.

I’m telling you, as soon as they turn the switch on to my neighborhood, I’m signing up.

I finished BioShock this morning.

I’m not sure if it’s just the way games are made nowadays, but I’d prefer a little more straightforwardness. Don’t get me wrong, the experience was incredible, but at times I thought to myself, “Geez, when is this going to be over already?”

I thought the splicers who play possum were pretty scary the first time I encountered them. I mean, I’m walking along minding my own business, about to search a corpse, and WHAM! the bastard jumps up and tries to shoot me. I nearly came off the couch in fright. I, did, however, get a little bored with all the hacking of things… during the last two or three levels I started buying my way out of any hack I could or just not hacking at all and paying full price for things where necessary.

I think I probably relied on my weapons more so than I should have… I like the idea of the plasmids, but I didn’t use them to their full potential. The next time I play I’ll focus more on them than conventional weapons. Harvest or Rescue? I chose to rescue the little sisters all the way through and it wasn’t because of some deep moral question either.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8. It’ll be a while before I play again, but I will play again.

Now, what game do I play next? Call of Duty 4 or Aces of Combat?

I finished up Halo 3 in campaign mode last weekend, and after having my ass handed to me quite unceremoniously in an online multi player match, I decided to move back to Bioshock. Man, is this a creepy game.

I’m sure I won’t be saying anything that hasn’t already been said a couple hundred times before, but this is truly an impressive world. Really, I have to remind myself that it is, in fact, just a game. 2K has done a phenomenal job. Even without a gaming background to speak of, I can recognize how cool this game really is.

I’ve just about finished up in the Medical Pavilion. Seriously… the creep factor is in full effect.

Dave and I occasionally play hottie tennis via IM. I’ll send him a link or a picture of someone (the serve), and he’ll return with a link or picture of his own. It’s not a formalized game by any stretch.

After a brief volley this afternoon (his Norah Jones to my Jewel Staite) he made this proclamation:

Girls are just awesome.

I couldn’t have said it better myself, brother.