I had a huge long winded entry all written out and then the connection was “lost,” and I lost my entry. Oh well. Gotta love technology.

So as many of you knew (or know), I had planned on trying to relocat myself next year to Australia. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, to go to a foreign place and try to make my way. I had intended to go on a skilled worker’s Visa, but hit a snag. I expected many of these and was happy to know that the majority of everyone I knew was very supportive of my endeavor. Eventually I discovered that my career hasn’t been happening for long enough, so the ability to go down there in the fashion that I wanted to is not possible for the time being.



Understandably I’ve been a little bit bummed, as I had planned to go down there and try to make my way, even by working retail or in the food industry. I am thinking that I still may be able to visit for a month (give or take), and though I haven’t ruled out the possibility of trying to live there someday, I’m not so sure it’ll ever happen. Who knows where I’ll be in 2-3 years.

So while that’s been a disappointment, it gives me the freedom to explore other options. Even though I have little interest in any other foreign country, I think there’s plenty to experience here in the States that I wouldn’t mind relocating to. I’ve always held an interest in the Northeast, Northwest, and Alaska. They draw me because of their adverse terrain and seemingly laid back pace of life. Though I enjoy the city living of Denver (and Heaven knows plenty of opportunities are here), I’m ready for something different.

Indeed this takes me to the idea that I want to travel more. I plan on scoping out more of the East coast early next year. Presumably March is when I’d like to go, and I plan on visiting Maine, Ithaca (to see Justin at Cornell), NYC to visit Kevin (and Traci) as well as DC to see Jonathan. I’m excited to explore more of the continent I live on, in hopes that I may find something to eventually explore further. Though the move wouldn’t be permanent I don’t think, I feel like I should take advantage to see more of the world while I have the chance.


Apparently a sight in Maine. I'm hoping there's a bit more...

It’s going to be an exciting next few weeks and months. Halo 3 comes out in nearly 2 weeks. I’ve already started to arrange a LAN party to have at my place on October 20th. It will have probably 8 Xbox 360’s and TV's, all hooked together to experience Halo 3. I can't wait for the trash talking to ensue. Nerdgasm, indeed.



With plenty of Mountain Dew to go around.



I bought my 2nd iPod last weekend. For my trip to South America my dad wants to view videos on my current 30gb iPod, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t without tunes. Plus I’ve been wanting to find something smaller in size and weight for exercise. I am glad I didn’t go with the Nano, as Apple unveiled the new ones this week. On a sidenote: are you pissed Kevin on the dramatic reduction in price of the iPhone? Being an early adopter has its price, but certainly less than 3 months and 33% price cut is rather dramatic. (Read: Letter to iPhone users) I decided to buy the Shuffle. I really do love the designs and after considering a ZUNE heavily for about 3 seconds, I wanted to go with another iPod. I'm very impressed so far with the Shuffle. It's small, sleek, and is just pretty neat overall. I also am enjoying the new earbuds (what an improvement over the last ones!) It makes me want to go out and grab the new Nano or iPod touch. Apple has a brilliant execution of its products. By the time the keynote was delivered on Wednesday, 75% of the new or revamped products were on their way to outlets. That’s impressive.



If there’s one thing that Microsoft has executed brilliantly, it’s the Xbox 360. Though they’ve had tremendous overheating issues, one cannot deny the fact that it’s a great machine. The Wii is a great one as well, but certainly in a different category altogether. They’ve made some good improvements to the box over the last 2 years, and though I bought one nearly 5 weeks after its release, I’m not unhappy with mine. Has anyone played Bioshock? I must admit I was skeptical at first but I've been drawn into this fictional twist of reality. It's quite entertaining, and certainly a time passer until Halo 3.



Has anyone seen this story? I don’t think that internet usage should be prohibited or set into tiers to divide the information highway. Equality is important…and restricting bandwidth or transfer rates I think is silly.

Anyway, I’m excited to see where the next few weeks and months take me. The short list includes Halo 3, South America, Texas, Minnesota, and the East coast. I’m trying to fit in San Diego somewhere in there too…so if it all happens according to plan, that will be 11 states and 2 countries I visit within a year’s time. I do look forward to more travel in 2008 as I had planned on this for 2007. Overall I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. I wouldn’t mind dating someone in there too, but at this point I’m really not too interested. I’ve been exhausted by the events of the last couple of years. And frankly, it’s exhausting to see that effort go nowhere.

Additionally Jonathan and I have been scripting (pun intended) our screenplay. I’m happy with where it’s going and the effort lately we’ve been giving it. Equally I’m just as excited on a book I’m putting together with a friend composed of poetry I’ve written in the last 9 years. It will also contain graphical enhancements to suit the poetry style and meaning. Though I’m not really ready to reveal more than that at this point, it’s something that’s given me a lot of confidence and hope in what I think will be a great outcome. If it’s anything like I think, it’s going to just be awesome. Some of you have seen a preview of it, but I’m really waiting until more of it is completed before giving more details. Rest assured, those will be revealed in due time.

Exciting times are ahead, with uncertain outcomes. But we shall see.

We shall see.

Yes.

Halo 3! At this point, the whole game is about 4 weeks away (closer to 3 at this point probably). September 25th couldn't come sooner.

And I know some people just roll their eyes (*cough* girls *cough*) at such a ridiculous obsession, but really, let's look at it.

1. The Halo universe is a shoot em up. That's always a plus, for destroying your enemies and getting some pent-up frustration out occasionally.

2. Creating bonds everyday. I know some of my favorite Halo moments are shared with my friends, especially when in large groups and enjoying ourselves. Part of the fun of the game is the teamwork and camaraderie.

3. The violence isn't overbearing. Though there are guns (and blood), it's not as if arms are being ripped off and guts are being spilled on the floor. The violence in it is normal FPS (First-Person Shooter) material, just with a tasteful twist.

With all those things in mind, why do some people have such a hatred towards it? I dated this girl once (who shall remain nameless) who HATED that I LOVED Halo. I should've seen it sooner that she should've gotten the boot. Such is hindsight. 20/20, as they say.

Anyway, Halo 3's marketing machine is already rolling. There are commercials all over the TV, Halo 3 Mountain Dew ("Game Fuel") being sold now, with Slurpee cups at 7-11. It feels like Star Wars. For our generation of gamers, it pretty much is.

Halo 2 made 125 million its opening weekend in November 2004. At that point, it was the largest opening weekend EVER for ANY media (movies, games, etc).

Spider-Man 3 made the biggest opening weekend ever this May at 151 million dollars.

Halo 3 will kick the living hell out of that figure. I guarantee it.

Additionally, why won't they just man up and make the movie already? Another great way to create buzz on the franchise is to basically continue with "shorts" that are live-action. I think the intentions of these are two-fold: to move forward with what the movie would look and feel like, as well as to create so much buzz that a Hollywood distributor/studio picks it up yesterday.

Okay, so it'll cost 200 million. And granted, movie tickets (5-15 dollars a piece) is harder to justify such a large budget (when the base Halo 3 game will be 60 dollars, special edition for 70 dollars, and legendary edition for 130 dollars), but anyone can see that this movie is just going to rock. I've attached 2 of the live-action sequences thus far. What else is it going to take to get Hollywood on board?

They're stupid enough to make DOOM, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros., Far Cry, Hitman, and Postal...why won't someone shell out for this? Of course there's probably more than meets the eye behind the scenes, but they need to straighten this out. Someone's sitting on a gold mine.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3sQfc0VIRMk

And:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cdkPYA5vxHw

Seriously. Make this freaking thing already.

I can't wait for September 25th.

So I realized that I may have judged the new NIN album, Year Zero, a bit harshly. And I did so before it came out. I judged it on its premise and overall tone before I had even picked it up.

Two things have basically compelled me to change my attitude. One, the album itself is a good one, with classic NIN quality and depth. Trent Reznor is a musical genius, you can't deny that.

Also, the thought and effort put into this album (with the viral marketing campaign [read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_Entertainment]) is astounding. Of course, having a company do this for you is awesome, but I'm definitely thrown back by all the details that went into the marketing before this album came out.

Side note: Notice that 42 entertainment has been responsible for 3 awesome franchises/releases: Halo 2, Year Zero, and The Dark Knight, forthcoming in 2008. And you thought I had an unhealthy obsession with the 3...

That said, the album itself is good. Better than 2005's With Teeth, with its good old fashioned rocking out industrial edge NIN. (My favorite song from 2005's album was this one, which only appeared on the vinyl & foreign versions).

Still though, I can't help but gravitate to the album in 1999 that made me love NIN: The Fragile. Now I know I've talked about this album previously, but this time, I want to go into WHY it is this album I love so much.



When I took a trip to Australia in 1999, I fell in love with the song "The Perfect Drug." This never appeared on an album, only as a single between the albums The Downward Spiral(1994) and The Fragile(1999). I heard it on a friend's CD down there and couldn't stop playing it. It had been 4 years since anything came from NIN's studio though...

Only a week or two after my return to the States, I found the first single from the forthcoming album. The title was simple, the graphics just the same. "NIN | Halo 13 | The Day The World Went Away" was all that was on the cover.


*oddly enough, this plant is apparently a very poisonous one, native to Australia. Most of the plants/imagery used for the album were inspired by this and another plant, also native to Australia I believe*

Those not familiar with the "Halo" theme - every CD or album release is given a Halo. Not sure why, but currently there are 24. That's 24 official releases from NIN since 1989.

The Fragile has many instrumental tracks on the album. The only other instrumental to appear before it was a track titled "A Warm Place" on The Downward Spiral. You can listen to it here.

Anyway, being that the song with the same title as this entry is my favorite NIN track, I figured I'd go into the why of it.

There are currently 5 variations, 4 of which are done by Trent Reznor himself (one is by a producer friend of his, and I'm not sure it's any good as I haven't listened to it for years). Anyone who hasn't listened to The Fragile should know it's a very organic sounding album, sometimes very mellow and sometimes not. It's one of the best albums I've ever listened to, simply because the themes and music fit together so well. Not every band does this, continually churning out lists of singles for the radio waves. If it's not my favorite album, it's at least in the top 3.

The first single on the above mentioned CD contains 2 versions of "The Day The World Went Away." One is the album version, another is a "quiet" version.

Subsequently, an album released in 2002 was set with remixes of tracks from The Fragile and live versions of the tour in 2000. So, on that set, one is a live version, the other is an acoustic version.

I am going to provide links to each one here, so you may have a listen.

Album version:
http://www.travisprange.com/Album.mp3
Notice how this one is similar to the Live version, except the 2nd half of the song is hard-edged, while the Live version goes the way of the Acoustic one.

Quiet version:
http://www.travisprange.com/Quiet.mp3
Notice this one where the chanting at the beginning is the theme of the song. The overall feel is very different from the Album version.

Live version:
http://www.travisprange.com/Live.mp3
This one I think is just awesome and sounds better (to me) than the Album version. I recently had to find the Album version on the internet since I have lost it.

Acoustic version:
http://www.travisprange.com/Acoustic.mp3
Utilizing mainly just drums, guitar and a piano, this one is a good mellow version to listen to.

Ultimately, I like them all, but one of the biggest reasons I love NIN is because Trent Reznor can take a song that is good from the beginning and completely morph it into something else.

If anyone is interested in any other tracks, be sure to let me know. I highly suggest listening to The Fragile, beginning to end (2 discs) to get the full effect of this great album.

Then again, isn't that how albums are supposed to be listened to?

So I've again realized what a tech geek I am. No seriously. My center channel on my old surround sound system was broken (on the amp) and just wasn't working entirely the way it should have. So instead of spending 200+ dollars by fixing it (I bought it 5 years ago), I've been looking around for months on systems I liked.

Lo and behold, I found a good deal for one at Costco this last week. So I spent my bonus money (and a little bit more) from 4 months ago to buy it. It's twice as powerful as the old and has more features.



It has an iPod doc connector, so I can stream music straight from that and browse playlists, even play videos from the iPod onto my tv. Not terribly different from the Xbox 360, except for the video part.

It has HDMI inputs, so it can upscale DVD's to 720p I believe. It has XM satellite radio support, and 1000 watts of pure goodness. The bass is earth shattering. Playing Halo 2 never sounded so good!

It makes me realize how fast technology evolves, and how much I enjoy evolving with it. Though I haven't taken the plunge into the HD DVD's yet, simply because I think the blu-ray vs. HD DVD thing is stupid. Eventually I figure I will get into that, after all...I do have an HD capable television and an extremely able sound system.

Along with that, I have a ton of DVD's. Ever since I started buying them in fall of 2000, I've accumulated nearly 200 DVD's to this point. I've steadily expanded my shelves, and am nearing a point where I will have to buy another. I just love DVD's though, I've always been a movie guy.



On a different note, The Police concert I went to was awesome. I know it was a month ago, but still it was one of the coolest shows I've seen in a long time, the energy and lighting, the extended/altered songs. It brought back a lot of memories growing up and I really liked the whole thing.

There was an album cover that they had that utilized LED lights, similar to something you'd see on an alarm clock.



They had a cool theme through one of the songs they played from that album that had a bunch of designs, flashing and moving and fading.



I recreated it crappily with the supplied gif animation.



Anyway, I've been thinking a lot lately that I want to get back to Waco or Texas in general and see some friends that I haven't seen in a while. I'm starting to look at heading there for Baylor's homecoming in November, but of course trying to figure out the details as best as I can. Though I could honestly care less about homecoming for hardly any school, and football, I must admit seeing everyone again after years is enticing. I've certainly grown a lot of those friendships, and it excites me to be with those same people again for one cause/purpose.

Anyway, a lot of things are in the works right now for the next year or two. I'm excited about all of them - including work, travels, and other side projects. I feel lethargic sometimes but I know I'm working towards new and different things. I'm feeling good about all of them, and I am assured that even though I don't know what the future looks like in detail, it is very, very bright.

It’s difficult to write about a car that I really had never been passionate about until about 3 weeks before I figured I could drive it. I knew, for several years, that I wanted to rent a car for my 25th birthday. I mean, what else are you going to do on that day?

I had figured, for a year or two, that I was going to try and rent a Corvette. I would have preferred to rent a C6, just because they seem so refined (even though the styling/design is more evolutionary than revolutionary). Alas, much time spent scouring the internet and calling up a few rental companies revealed that a Corvette wouldn’t be easy to obtain, or cheap. I only found out that Hertz at the airport was getting a Corvette added to their fleet this summer. Yes, that’s singular. So anyway, that was a pointless pursuit, so I decided to find something else.



I had always kind of debated if I wanted a sportscar, or something more ridiculous, like a HUMMER, or something similar. I’m a die-hard fan of the H1, but couldn’t care less about the H2. H3, same story. Now the H4 might actually be a good Wrangler contender, so I haven’t turned my nose up at it quite yet.

Still though, I decided that I’d never really driven a sportscar, unless you consider a 1993 Cadillac Eldorado “sporty,” so why not? The Cadillac is fast, but cushy and doesn’t have the feel of sportiness.

So, inevitably I went with the 350Z. It was the cheapest of what I was looking to get for a day (about $190 with insurance - just in case I destroyed it!), and seemed like it would be a lot of fun. Plus, it didn’t hurt that a friend had mentioned they were awesome to drive. Thanks for that one, Kevin.



Awesome indeed. I did hit 110 twice between Denver and Boulder (I really could’ve gotten it higher, but a 110 mph ticket would have been costly enough), and ended up driving nearly 330 miles that day.

I took it up to Estes Park, one of my favorite drives in the world, simply because the drive up there is full of twists and turns, and incidentally includes many places to pass people who aren’t doing 70 mph. I am normally lucky to hit those curves at 40-45 in the Jeep. I took pictures up in Estes, didn’t really do much there, and drove to Boulder and around Denver some more.

Overall, I really enjoyed my day off from work (I’ve only taken off 5 I think since starting there in September) and spoiling myself with the taste of sportiness for a day.

Through my adventure, I realized a car like the 350Z would be bad for me though. I do consider myself a good driver (though a bit crazy), but even a car with that much power I think I would push too often, and inevitably take it too far. I think one (if not all) of the following would happen: 1. I would kill someone else in an accident, 2. I would get a LOT of speeding tickets, or 3. I would end up killing myself.

So I think I’ve decided that though I enjoy the sportiness of a car, an SUV such as my Wrangler is a good fit for me. It’s sporty enough, 4WD, and a convertible. Though its days are definitely numbered, at this point it’s a perfect fit and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one.



I decided this year though that I’m going to do something different every year for my birthday, to hopefully keep it fresh and interesting. Even if it means spending some extra money, I’m more than willing to save up for that than to spend money here and there on smaller crappy stuff.

So I think 2008 may be the year I skydive. I’ve always wanted to, so assuming someone will push me out of a plane (who am I kidding?! I’m sure many people would love to), I think that’s what I’m going to do.

Life’s an adventure. It’s a mistake not to take advantage of that.