Ryan j Budke

I’ve started a new project on Kickstarter.com, and it’s built around one of my many many loves: Zombies. Brandon and I had the idea a few months ago to build a really kickass Zombie Defense app for the iPhone. We put together all the ideas we had for it, and the features we wanted it to be capable of, but that led to problem #1: Neither of us had any idea how to program for the iPhone. I tried. I failed. It wasn’t pretty. So we decided to hire out the work and get someone else to do the programming for us. This led us to problem #2: Neither of us had any money to spare to hire someone. This is where Kickstarter.com comes in.

Kickstarter is an awesome new site that lets you ask for pledges/donations to fund a project that you have. You can even setup rewards for people that pledge a certain amount. Meaning you can in essence pre-sell an application that you don’t have the means to build at the moment. It’s an incredibly cool setup, and I’m amazed someone hasn’t done it before. Right now it’s invite only, but eventually they plan on opening it up much more.

Make sure you check out the Zombie Defense iPhone App on Kickstarter, and if you feel so inclined, pledge a couple of bucks. Also, I have just one more invite left to give out for Kickstarter, so if you have the next great idea, but not the means, let me know!

Ok, so it’s not for a few months (June to be exact, but I’m really excited that my mom and dad are firming up their plans to come and visit this summer and I’m pumped up. Last year I went a reeeaaaaalllly long time without seeing my family or friends from back home, which was strange, so it’s good to know an exact date that I’ll be able to see them.

Besides going horseback riding with Allison on Friday night at the amazing Sunset Ranch which I’ll gloss over so I don’t give another site any more ammo to use, I did nothing this weekend and it was great! I woke up on Saturday, played Ninja Gaiden for about five hours, did a little work, cleaned a little and then did my taxes.

Sunday I got caught up on Weeds, watched a few movies, then the Superbowl. (sidenote: f*ck the Steelers, but at least Santonio Holmes got the game winning play, go Bucks). It was the first time in years that I didn’t participate or host in some big to-do for the game, and it was great.

Two weeks into 28 and I’m already enjoying doing my taxes on a Saturday night. I’m an old man.

Since I’m a lifelong internet guy, there’s no better summary of today’s change than the new official website of the President, WhiteHouse.gov. Besides including all sorts of little technical improvements that many sites today have and that the old WhiteHouse.gov was missing (rss feeds, a blog, galleries), there’s a great emphasis on interaction and transparency. With just one click you can see every single Proclamation, Executive Order and Nomination and Appointment that President Obama has made. I like being able to see the history of the Presidency, Camp David and even Air Force One all on a page that’s not Wikipedia.

PS: Since when is Whitehouse.com no longer porn?

It’s funny that today was supposedly Blue Monday (the most depressing day of the year), because I easily had one of my most productive days ever. I knocked about a dozen things off of my To-Do list, got to check off just about everyone of my Joe’s Goals boxes, ate really healthy, exercised pretty strenuously, even found time to read for both myself and work. So I say “bah” to you depression. Cheer up.

I went to Disneyland today to celebrate my 28th birthday and I had an absolute blast. Lon and I had a lot of fun creating a whole fake tweetup (yes that’s exactly as nerdy as it sounds) and when I got home and read today’s Savage Chicken comic, it was just a bonus.

Despite once upon a time being a television blogger, I’ve always found it hard to write about movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love movies, I love them so much I tend to go on a roll and ramble on and my writing turns to shit. I could talk about, argue and discuss movies until I’m blue in the face, but my writing about them just sucks. On top of that, I’m much too nice, I can critique, but prefer to talk about the stuff I enjoy. If you’re looking for a balanced, well written, actual critic, look no further than Lon Harris.

All that said, 2008 was very possibly my favorite year for movies ever. Iron Man and Dark Knight both showed that comic book movies could be legitimate and amazing, and didn’t it by taking the genre in two totally different directions. Indiana Jones returned and was an awesome blast from the past (yes, I enjoyed the hell out of it). There were great surprises like Tropic Thunder and Slumdog Millionaire, and those that you could have counted on like Burn After Reading and Frost/Nixon.

I normally count the days for movies from Gus van Sant, David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Ron Howard, the Coen brothers, and Darren Aronofsky, and this year we got them within weeks of each other. Films as a whole are very much a group effort, but there have been so many individual standout performances. Again, with standards that you could count on like Clint Eastwood (in front of and behind the camera), actors like Anne Hathaway who you hoped had it in them, and those like Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke who came roaring back.

I enjoyed 2008’s movies like I remember enjoying movies when I was little. I had fun, and can’t wait to see what 2009 holds… but I’m rambling.

I meant to write something about this a few months ago, but totally forgot about it. As you’ll recall, I’ve had a bit of a (made up, fantasy, non-existant) history with Stacy Keibler. One of my first posts that got ran by AOL when I was at TV Squad was basically me creepily asking her out. Then, just this past summer at ComicCon, I was hanging out with Keith McDuffee and totally pussed out by not even talking to her.

I recently ended a certain sabbatical on New Year’s, and was talking about it tonight with young Mr. Gallagher who said I should try and date Stacy Keibler. Not only is that a stroke of brilliance, but it reminded me that I never posted these pictures. You see, I found myself at an Emmy party just a few weeks after ComicCon and had a rare second shot, and I took it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and fill you in on when the wedding will take place.

Just the right kind of weird to start off 2009 with.

It’s about that time to start making resolutions for 2009, and this year I’ve decided to reward myself a bunch too. I think I found my first goal:

Harley-Davidson | Motorcycles | 2009 Motorcycles.