On Tuesday the lender for my mortgage was holding off on releasing the funds because they required some documents from the seller. After short number of phone calls, this is was resolved today. With that, it appears there are no more hoops to jump through. On Saturday at noon, I will pick up the keys to my apartment.
Saturday isn't exactly what I would call a "move-in" day as I still haven't bought a bed, couch, or TV. I'll be moving in quite slowly but that's a luxury I don't mind having. I am thinking about bringing on Saturday some toilet paper, a towel, and some soap. At least I can use the bathroom on day one.
Based on a random draw done by the all-mighty being that is the Internet, Zanne has won the copy of skate 2. I thank the other contestants for participating and hope they enjoy their second-place prizes of et.com women's thong underwear.
I received two free copies of skate 2 from the studio. I'm obviously keeping one copy for myself but I'm giving away the other one. So if you're interested in a copy of the NTSC (North American) version of skate 2 for the Xbox 360, just leave a comment on this post with your first name. The lucky winner will have their copy mailed to them.
In the interest of fairness, after 24 hours I'll put all the names in a professional lotto ball machine and the winner will be the first name drawn. Though to be very honest, I'm expecting no one to leave any comments in the next 24 hours. The last time I decided to give away free stuff, which happened to be my et.com t-shirts, I was literally begging people to take the shirts from me (which included postage as well). I guess you can't give away anything.
So undoubtedly some of you have now heard the audio of Christian Bale going on a tirade on the set of Terminator 4. If you haven't, the clip above is available for your listening. Be forewarned though, it contains about a billion f-bombs and he gets very, very angry.
Supposedly, Bale lost his cool because the director of photography or DP, wandered into his sightline while he was doing a scene with actress Bryce Dallas Howard. From what Bale says, this wasn't the first time that happened. Bale's fearsome verbal assault on the DP is stunning in its ferocity. Though only the audio is available (for now), you can imagine that this is happening on the set with dozens and dozens of people on hand to listen. Bale essentially rips the DP a new one and he wasn't at all kind about it either. It goes without saying that the DP probably felt belittled by Bale. The threat of violence near the end didn't make things better either.
I think Bale is a great actor. It's clear he commits to his role fully and he's well-known for the lengths he'll go for a movie. He wanted to starve himself to 100 lbs. for The Machinist and he didn't only because he was stopped by the filmmakers who were concerned about his health. So it's clear he's very intense when it comes to his craft. Despite this passion, I believe it doesn't give him the right to belittle another human being in front of his peers. His tirade was very unprofessional, even if the DP did walk into his shot for the second time. What was at stake? A life or Bale's millions of dollars? No. It was a scene in a movie. Yeah, I get he's really into his work and no one likes it when someone else screws with you while you're working but this was way over the line. Being respectful and professional are qualities you don't leave behind just because you're a highly-paid actor.
In a similar situation but reversed, consider what happened on the set of Three Kings, the 1999 George Clooney movie. Director David O. Russell was having a difficult time during shooting and was under tremendous stress. For whatever reason, Russell began treating his crew badly, both verbally and physically. Clooney stepped in to defend the crew knowing he was probably the only one in a position to do so. After Russell threw an extra to the ground, Clooney verbally admonished Russell for the act. Depending on what account you read, Russell either did engage Clooney in a fistfight or at least the two got very close to brawling. You can view this in a few different ways but my take is that Clooney is a dude that never forgets about the importance of having respect and being professional at all times. You might wonder if pumelling a director is being professional but I bet if you asked the crew of Three Kings, they'd probably tell you damn right that was the right thing to do. It's not difficult to understand why Clooney is well-liked on movie sets.
So yeah, that was a dickhead move on Bale's part and I hope that since that clip was recorded (in July 2008), Bale has had a chance to apologize for the way in which he expressed his displeasure at being interrupted. Having said all of that, I will mention one last thing. If you're going to put yourself out there and act like a raving asshole for millions of people to hear, I'm pretty sure he did it the best way possible. He didn't stutter or trip over his words in any of the three and a half minutes of bile. He was crazy intense the entire time and the switching of accents between American and Welsh was unbelievable. He's even laser-focused when he's angry, that's amazing. He loses a few points for mocking the guy though.
I wonder if this little bit of drama will cause more or less people to see T4 when it comes out.
Thanks to everyone who replied to my plea for insurance guidance. I just have one more question. How many of you have opted for earthquake coverage? Why did or did you not opt for that?
You might remember in the first skate game, the city of San Vanelona contained a series of lobster restaurants where I was the owner. For skate 2, the artists on the dev team have once again placed signs through the rebuilt New San Vanelona featuring the names of everyone who worked on the game. The signs are much larger and fancier this time around. Some people even have 3D signs as opposed to a simple 2D texture placed upon a polygon. As you can see above, after the original San Vanelona was destroyed, I was able to rebuild my food empire. Leaving lobsters behind, I now sell quality fried chicken items to city residents. EFC, as I like to call it, apparently has done quite well in the new city, as several outlets can be found in the Old Town district. If you look carefully, you'll find my flagship location featuring three EFC signs side by side.
The image you see above is from the clothing selection feature of skate 2. In the original skate, you couldn't play as a female. For the sequel, as you can see, we've remedied this. Note the wickedly awesome acid wash jean vest the character is wearing. I actually own the real world jean vest from which the digital version was modeled after. At the beginning of development, there was a call for certain clothing items to be brought in so that the artists could begin to fill out the library of clothing to be used in the game. One of the items requested was a jean vest, so I brought mine in. Whoever was in charge of the clothing decided my vest was good enough, so I was told that it would make it into the game. What I didn't know until almost half a year later was that my vest was going to be a female only clothing item only! Also, if you don't believe I really own the item in question, I invite you to look at this picture.
So there you have it! Aside from the hundreds of lines of code I wrote for skate 2, these are the two most visible references to me in the game.
