I’ve been going on and on about how awesome Neil Blomkamp’s Halo shorts are. So, if you haven’t checked them out yet I suggest you do it now. All three shorts have been collected into one—slightly longer—super tasty short.

I recommend watching the large video, it’s worth the extra download time. You’ll see the amazing amount of detail that was put into this featurette. The textures are gritty, the cameras are jerky, and watching the Brutes’ hair ruffle will send shivers down your spine. If only the Master Chief were more than a ball of flame shooting across the sky…

Next up in the litany of free photoshop brushes I’d like to present to you the Photogram Series 1 brush set. For those of you who don’t know what a photogram is check out wikipedia for the answers. I made these photograms in late 2003 early 2004 during my photography class. I have to say that this was by far the best part of the class. Anyway, I made them, they turned out great, and have been sitting at the bottom of my closet ever since. Luckily, I did take the time to scan them in before I forgot about them completely.

While I haven’t played Halo 3 yet via the fact that buying paint and storm windows for my house has been a much huger priority for some (read wife) than me wasting away all zombie-like in front of the television whilst button mashing my gray matter away. I came across this most righteous review by Yahtzee Croshaw over at The Escapist.

In a word, it’s fucking hilarious… well that’s two words, but you can piss off for all I care. Now on to Zero Punctuation: Halo 3

I am proud to present to you the first installment of the “Brick Brush Project.” It is pretty much what it sounds like, a series of brick textured Photoshop brushes. Now, you might ask, “Proj, there are a million PS brushes out there, what’s so great about these?”

I was reading through my copy of Kerry Thornley’s Zenarchy over lunch since I had nothing else of interest to read. I got to this passage and I just thought that it was great and very apt for today’s society. For all the freedoms and rights we have as Americans will still lack the one thing that could make this whole debacle work—RESPECT for one another. I’m not just talking respect, but also appreciation for the individual qualities that we all bring to the mix. So without further adieu I give you Validation: A Stoned Sermon…

Lordi Lordi, what can you say about Lordi. Are these guys completey nuts or are they just a cheap rip-off of GWAR. Actually Lordi is neither of those things. Lordi is a hard rock maelstrom invading the states. These super beasts hail from Finland where it gets so cold in the winter that you have to climb into elaborate monster costumes just to stay warm.

Seriously though, Lordi is a new import courtesy of the kind folks over at The End Records, and the Arockalypse is what they are reigning down. After making it big in their homeland by winning the Eurovision music contest Lordi brought their act to the world with a summer long stretch with Ozzfest.

When I first heard this album I thought to myself, “Sh!t, this is the best album I’ve heard all year!” After a month or so of listening to Traineater I can stick to that opinion. The Book of Knots have created a tribute to the decaying landscape that is the heart of industrial America. The core members of The Book of Knots—Matthias Bossi, Joel Hamilton, Tony Maimone, and Carla Kihlstedt—have teamed up with some amazing talents including Megan Reilly, Mike Watt, and the man himself Tom Waits.

So, I managed to crawl out from under my rock long enough this weekend to make it out to the late Sunday show at the new and improved Box Awesome—formerly known as The Chatter Box. So, who was playing? Well, Shinyville of course. Shinyville opened for two other great bans Time of Orchids and Upsilon Acrux.