ChasingLilly.net

Now I don’t often blog about things like video games… though maybe I should. I’m sure most of you have heard of a game called Portal. Originally packaged in The Orange Box Collections, it was made by Valve, the crazy people behind the Half-Life series, Counterstrike, and the Left 4 Dead series, among others. I heard a lot about the game, got really interested, and thus went out and bought it. I realize this may be old news to most, but it’s new to me!

It’s primarily a puzzle game based around the use of what’s called a “Portal-gun,” which allows you to create portals between two disconnected areas and travel between them. It’s crazy fun, and crazy innovative. You play as a character named Chell (which is a stupid name, but whatever), who is apparently a test subject at the weird and deserted Aperture Science Laboratories. The facility is run by a computer system named GLaDOS, who is hilarious. She helps you around the facility. Constantly full of wit and other subtle humor, GLaDOS is easily one of my favorite video game characters.

While at first you are simply completing tests in different rooms, you eventually begin to realize GLaDOS may be trying to kill you. It’s around this point you go on a mission to destroy the facility.

And I love it. I don’t even know why, but I’ve completed the game three times already and still want more. Portal 2 is coming out next year, and I can’t wait! So go try it out and stuff.

Happy Trails,
Sam.



PS — Since I’m now a Valve fan, I’ve started to play Half-Life 2, so we’ll see how that goes…

My best bud Will McCarry is just now releasing his long-awaited debut solo album, In Flight. He’s been working on it for quite a while, and it really shows. It’s an awesome selection of songs, and you should all definitely pick it up. Yours truly even makes an appearance on at least one song. Right now the only way to get the whole album is from him, though I’m working with him on a way to put it up online for free. Maybe I’ll even host it here on ChasingLilly.net! You can, however, check out some of the songs at either his Facebook Fan Page or his Myspace. And while you’re over on Facebook, be sure to become a fan!

In preparation for the album, our quite good friends Mel Kobran and Nathaniel Tonelli worked on an album cover for the CD. You can see the finished back cover/cover (respectively) for the album below. They did a really great job, and Mel did a great job putting it all together in Photoshop. All the elements are real, from the hand drawn planes to the coffee stain (which is actually an orange juice stain, but who needs to know?). As always, click to enlarge and by doing so, enjoy.

While they worked on the cover, I simultaneously worked on designing the inside of the album booklet. I finally finished yesterday at 4 AM, and figured I could share a few of the pages with you. But I won’t share them all, some surprises should be left for when you get your hands on a copy of the album!

In Flight booklet pages 1 & 2

In Flight booklet pages 5 & 6

I think it turned out quite well, but then again I am a bit biased. So far the response has been positive, though, so that’s a good sign. Regardless it was a lot of fun branching out into the design of album art. The awesome photos from the booklet were taken by Mel as well. She’s a photography major at VCU, so go over to her flickr or some place and support her. Another friend of mine, Billy Bacci, is also releasing an album soon (he claims next week) and has asked me to do something for him. I can smell another late-night-team-album-art-creating venture coming! Where’s my album? It’s coming…

So go pick up a copy of In Flight from Will, and I’ll keep everyone else updated on where they can download a copy of the album on the interwebz. Soon, very soon. In fact by tomorrow. No joke. I know, it’s crazy how much I’m suddenly blogging. And yes, I realize I’m just having a conversation with myself at the computer.



Happy Trails,
Sam.

Howdy. Yeah, that’s right. Howdy. It’s been too long, internets.

I’ve been all over the country in the last few weeks, and boy are you guys gonna get some long-awaited info from me this week. Might as well start by talking about how much I love the fair state of New Mexico. There’s a reason it’s called “The Land of Enchantment” (and yes, that is a rhetorical statement). Because it’s so enchanting (well, looks like I answered it anyways…)! I was over there for two weeks, and did everything from disc golf to hiking to tubing to hot-tubbing it in some natural hot springs. My cousin and I were even presumed dead twice by our parents. (Note to readers: do not walk to a river in the middle of no where, leave your phone and jacket on one side, then cross over and out of sight; just in case your parents find them and suspect the worst.)

I left my jacket on that post for a few minutes, thus claiming the mountain for Mary Washington

We hiked a mountain in Colorado up to what’s called “Sharkstooth Peak”, and it was one of the most awesome, epic things I have ever done in my life. The hike up to what we will affectionately call “the tooth” was beautiful and nice. But once you finally reached the tooth, it was a thin-aired, straight-up climb over thousands of loose rocks. The views were equally stunning. For evidence, just look below! (click to enlarge)

There are the thousands of rocks I was talking about

taken up near the top of The Tooth, the air was getting thin

Climbing straight up the rock that is Sharkstooth peak

Of course, this was just one of the many awesome things we did. I haven’t even started talking about disc golf (of which I am now obsessed)! But that’s a post for another time.

Happy Trails,
Sam.