Dan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog

An alternative take on the blog-what-you-got-for-Xmas meme. Assuming the following mappings to be true: The average PS2 or Xbox DVD game has a capacity of 4.5 GB. The average Gamecube game has a capacity of roughly 1.3 GB. The average CD – be it audio or game – has a capacity of 700 MB. The average movie DVD has a capacity of 9.0 GB. The combined data capacity of my Christmas presents – just mine, not including Katie’s – is 288 GB. Now, I don’t know what percentage of that capacity is actually filled, but my impression is it’s close. Ten years ago, the computer I was using (the infamous SE/30) had a 30 MB hard drive. Were I to segment all of the data I’ve acquired over the last 48 hours into 30 MB chunks, I would need 9,600 Mac SE/30s to contain it all. Just a wee bit frightening.

I think that was a pretty successful initial pilot. Hope you all liked it. I’ve got plenty more music to play, and I’ve already been talking to Paul about figuring out ways to get me more bandwidth through a reflector – so we may do this again soon in the future. I got a few requests for a tracklist, so click through if you want to know what was played. Thanks to all that listened, and thanks to Rogue Amoeba for making such fantastically stable software – didn’t fall over once, and sounded great at 56kbps.

So after some discussions with people at work, I’ve realized that it’d be nice if I had someway to force my musical tastes on you lot. So, behold, as a sort of holiday gift, I’m going to be streaming 12 hours of meticulously selected music tomorrow, from the moment I leave in the morning (8 AM) until I get home post-dinner (roughly 8 PM). I’m streaming with Nicecast at 56kbps; I should have enough bandwidth to squeeze the entire audience of the six people who read my blog daily in. Like I said, this is the result of my meticulousness. Each minute of aural pleasure is hand-crafted from my absurd range of ratings and metadata to provide the optimal polyphonic auditory experience. Look, I even have a schedule (all times are Eastern and VERY approximate): 08:00 – 08:28 | Wake Up Mix A handful of random songs, all having to deal with sleep in some way. Prodigy, TMBG, Ted Leo, Akira Yamaoka, and more. 08:29 – 09:30 | Best Of Beatmania IIDX One of my existing playlists – three songs off each of the OSTs I have, taking you chronologically through what I consider to be the best music from my favorite music game. Plus, a remix at the end. 09:30 – 10:00 | Taste Of FPM A very small handful of Fantastic Plastic Machine, the very finest in Japanese House. 10:00 – 11:00 | Get Your Bootleg On An hour of bootlegs, mashups, and fan-made remixes. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll demand to know where I found this stuff. 11:00 – 12:00 | My Bizarre Tastes In Hip-Hop From MC Chris to Asletics to Jurassic 5, this only proves I’m mentally insane. 12:00 – 02:00 | Burnout 3 Custom Soundtrack Two hours of music I use when playing Burnout 3; all good driving music – also good working music. Death In Vegas, Underworld, Green Day, Chemical Brothers, and many more. 02:00 – 03:00 | Afternoon Nap For the post-lunch sleep we all need, some downtempo and trip hop. Massive Attack, Tosca, Thievery Corp, etc. 03:00 – 03:30 | Ben Folds Interlude Finishing off the nap, a handful of Ben Folds, including a number of songs off his new EPs. 03:30 – 05:00 | DJ Shadow’s “In Tune & On Time” & “Pushin’ Buttons Live” An hour and a half of DJ Shadow live. Hear him mix his own stuff first with “In Tune & On Time”, and then listen to him, Nu-Mark, and Cut Chemist go nutty with the drum machines on “Pushin’ Buttons Live”. 05:00 – 06:00 | Best Of M-Flo If you don’t like m-flo, what the hell is wrong with you? Japanese hip-hop with some eclectic twists. 06:00 – 06:30 | Obscurity The most random stuff you’ve never heard. Strange covers, local hip hop, and oh yes, MC Pee Pants. 06:30 – 08:00 | Best Of Orbital Closing out the night, my selections of the very best of a band I wish hadn’t broken up this year. Closing out with the epic, unmatchable 28+ minute version of The Box. In total, it’ll be 141 songs of bliss. I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy. Link to the streaming server will be posted in the morning.

I have a few free subscriptions to some magazines – they generally provide me with about 30 minutes of entertainment when they come in. After going through the new EGM this morning, I pulled open the new Gamepro tonight, and started thumbing through it. I find a section on the DS, and read this about Mr. Driller (emphasis mine):

Okay, ignoring the whole GBA-version-didn’t-come-out-in-the-US (although it’s been announced now – way to localize that four years too late, Namco!), “best Tetris variation”? What in the living fuck is that supposed to mean? Has anyone at Gamepro played Mr. Driller – or for that matter, Tetris? One’s a pure puzzle game – and the other one is a twitchy action game with some puzzle elements! Holy shit, they’re like gaming twins. So I thought this was as stupid as it could get – and then I turned the page. There’s a description of Ping Pals, and I shit you not, the quickie synopsis reads:

Ping Pals, for those that don’t know, is a “game” that tries to one-up Nintendo’s built-in chatting functionality but instead is somehow worse, despite actually costing you money. IGN gave it a 3.5, Gamespot notched it at 3.3, and EGM gave it a 1.5/0.0/0.0, managing an average of 0.5. They also called Sprung “goofy and more fun than you’d think”. I’m so happy this was a free subscription, but I’ll be even happier when it expires in April.

I raved about Matsu in my recently posted Restaurant Guide for the Winter. Katie and I had long ago decided we’d hit it up for her birthday (which was today – she’s 25. Be sure to wish her a happy birthday!), and go for the adventurous “Chef’s Choice” dinner for the two of us. While I didn’t have the camera on me to continue the trend of photographing what I’m eating, I can textually describe the entire affair: First: Seafood soup. Clear broth, with crab + shrimp + whitefish + mussel + scallop. Broth was delicious, fish was too. Second: Baby clams (each half was about the size of a penny) in a soy garlic sauce. A little hard to eat but extremely tasty. Third: Shark Fin salad. The delicate flavored of shark fin was matched with sesame, which helped bring down the strong flavour of the shark fin. (Anyone who’s watched Battle Yogurt on Iron Chef with me should get that.) Fourth: Ebi sashimi with wasabi tobiko on top, and prawn tempura. The ebi was good, but I’ve never been much for prawns. Fifth: Toro tartar, I think with a little bit of yellowtail in as well. Heaven, absolute heaven. My favorite on the night, because I’m a huge mark for toro. Sixth: Scallops steamed in sake, and served cold. At this point we started feeling full – then were told that we had sushi coming and then the main course. Seventh: Sex On The Beach Roll (shrimp tempura inside, rice, seaweed, grilled eel, tobiko, three kinds of sauces.), plus six giant pieces of sashimi (two salmon, two tuna, two something else). Eighth: Tuna Teriyaki. Whole sushi-grade tuna steak, done teriyaki style, with vegetables and a bed of onions. I know I keep saying this, but jesus this was good. Ninth: The big surprise – one I had known about from Monday, but managed to hide from Katie and she was completely shocked. They had bought Katie a small birthday cake – sponge cake with white icing, and Gary had put fresh fruit on top. Add on to that a few sodas, two free beers, and green tea – we are unbelievably stuffed. I am in a near food coma, and the bill came to $90 for the two of us (not including tax and the absurd tips we tend to leave). I don’t think I’ll have a better Japanese meal than this one for the remainder of my life.

Slice Club was definitely worth the trip. Big thanks to Youngna, Laren, Nichelle, and of course Adam the Pizza Overlord, for all making the night so damn enjoyable. It was sad that the skating was slightly thwarted by The Trump Zambonis, but it wouldn’t be New York City without Donald Trump somehow screwing it up, I guess. I look forward to the next Slice club. For now, I go to bed with a full stomach and aching feet.