Well, the Orange Box came out last week to much rejoicing for us gaming droids...Not only does this mammoth compilation contain the award-winning and utterly great Half Life 2, but also Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and the long-awaited (i.e. since 2000) Team Fortress 2...a ridiculous crazy ludicrous bargain at $49.95...

While Half Life is something that needs to be seen (or experienced) to be believed, and Team Fortress 2 is currently the best team-based shooter on the PC, bar none, the cute and crazy surprise comes in the form of Portal. A simple enough premise: you, a maze of laboratory corridors, and a gun that makes dimensional portals, anywhere you want. Add in a psychotic, but cute-sounding artificial intelligence, rocket turrets, and of course, moist delicious cake, and you've got a helluva game.

And a cool as hell song, too. Click here to download "Still Alive", the thoroughly catchy endgame song from Portal, sung by everyone's favorite AI antagonist, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System)...written by a real cool cat named Jonathan Coulton...and since dr™ wouldn't be happy if this post didn't include a cover tune, listen to Mr. Coulton's wonderfully white-ified cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back here.

Henceforth,

Since I've put up this site (actually, since Styledroid convinced me to do it and got me started), I've been a big fan of Google Analytics. For those of you unfamiliar with this tool, basically it keeps track of your site statistics (how many visitors, new vs. returning visitors, keywords people used to find your site, how people find your site, etc. etc.) and allows you to see which marketing strategies are working and which aren't.

It has become my new eBay, much in the same way that I have to check it on a regular basis, just like I used to check my eBay auctions. I'm always interested in seeing which search terms people use to find RobotSound. Unsurprisingly, the most popular search so far has been for the Benni Benassi Satisfaction video. "Ninja pirate zombie robot" has also garnered several hits (see my site title bar on the home page), a strategy whose idea came from discussing the whole ninja vs. pirate debate in the office with my co-worker Qwiki, a self-proclaimed Ninja. Anyhoo, the whole reason for this post is for all the robots or robophilic creatures out there in cyberspace who are searching for actual Robot Sounds. It's interesting to consider the question of why they would be looking for such things, but be that as it may, I have put together a small collection of samples that might satisfy their needs. If anyone would like to submit a sound of their own, they can email me at dr. electro at gmail.com.

So by now you might be wondering, how does someone like me find a place that sells the kind of music I listen to? Lucky for me, for the past 14 years I've been living near probably the best independent record store in the world Amoeba Records. Some people might call it a "black crack" house, where vinyl junkies (myself included) go to score. I call it the evil demon responsible for siphoning off most of my disposable income. Call it what you want, it's a mecca for music lovers - if you're ever in Hollywood (or Berkeley or San Francisco), it's required that you go. I still like visiting the smaller shops that manage to stay open despite the Goliath that is Amoeba.