Robot Love Update

I noticed that one of my Robot Love remixes from years ago was downloaded 174 times in July and I have no idea why. So it's time to take a trip over to Google and see what's new in the world of Robot Love...

Legal Pad Humor's clever animation

Oxymoronatron's "21st Century Robot Love"

and... whatever this is. Looks like a stuffed robot to me. Check out the other robots by the same artist. Also very clever.

If you've got a three-year-old and all he wants to do is play Gameboy or PS2, you need to pick this game up: Cranium Cariboo.

Let me tell you: it's so cool to be able to play a board game with your son (who is three) and have him really get into it. It's probably just about the coolest thing imaginable (yes, even cooler than one of them new Mustangs).

One from Victor's Vault

Okay, I probably should apologize in adavance for this. Today I had the idea that I could hook up an old walkman to my portable mp3 player, dig up some of my old mix-down tapes from my 4-track tape-recorder days, and record (tape, old walkman, and low-fi mp3 player recording hiss and all) some of my old music.

I recorded it in the fall of 1996, when I was a senior in college. Up until this point only one other person in the world, besides myself, has ever heard this song (that's right, kids: this one doesn't even appear on the "Radio Victor" CD-R I put out in ought-two). In it, my alter-ego at the time, Mr. Straight Shots, comes to term with his funk nightmare. Listening to it now, I think it's quite brilliant, but maybe that's just because it bespeaks some pretty good times.

Yes, it's hissy almost to the point of being unlistenable, but until I dig out my 4-track recorder and make a decent mixdown of the tune, you'll have to live with it. I know you'll understand, Philothea: I just couldn't deprive the world of this track any longer.

Victor Lams (1996): "Straight Shots" (2MB mp3 file)

Maybe I'll dig up more of these tunes someday. I had a quite insipidly inspirational song, too, if I recall, entitled "Mellow-Day" that all my friends mocked.

You're free to disagree with me, but I'm thinking now that music encoded as OGG files tends to sound better than mp3 files encoded at a comparable bitrate. The bottom end just sounds a lot more punchy to me and there's greater definition around the high-range, too.

So, gentle reader, what was #1 on the charts the day you were born?

Jayson Franklin, of The Catholic Cast, did a full-length podcast on Catechism Rock!, featuring an interview with me. I haven't heard it yet, so I probably say some really stupid things on it you won't want to miss.

Download it today and someday you can stand defiantly in front of my podium as I rum for the US Senate, boombox raised above your head, and single-handedly unmake my political career!

Our prayers are with Bob Moog who is suffering from, and receiving radiation treatment for, a brain tumor.

NYTimes.com: Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an IPod

Quote of the week:

"Lock me in a room with a computer, an original San Andreas DVD and a binary-file editor, and I will be able to unlock the stuff in a matter of minutes," he said defiantly.

You had me at "lock me in a room with a binary-file editor".

Sorry I've been so light on the 'blogging lately. But if you're looking for a great PS2 game that you can play (co-operatively) with your spouse/children, you could do a lot worse than Lego Star Wars. The high concept for the game is this: let's do the three Star Wars prequels WITH LEGOS. So the characters are all made out of Legos and when they die they blow apart in a shower of tiny bricks (as does much of the environment when you hit it).

If you like Legos and could at least tolerate Episodes I through III (one of our reasons for getting this game is that we could figure out the story to Episode III without having to see the movie in the theaters or wait for the DVD), then you should definitely check this out. It's so cute and so fun.

Fr. Lemire is my new personal hero.

Steve Greydanus really hated this movie.

Had the filmmakers deliberately set out to insult, demean, and trample upon Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s legacy, they could hardly have done a more efficient job. Yet with a production this thoroughly inept, it’s actually hard to know who to blame.