Inner Child Is Not So Inner...

My inner child is on the floor screaming and crying and begging for his parents to buy him something. What do I... I mean what does he want? Looky!

3,800 pieces, $400, and 284582 hours of awesomeness!

Check out more at Gizmodo by CLICKING HERE!

Point, Activision...

Activision just sold me on Guitar Hero: World Tour with a single word. That word? Everlong.



Everlong is quite possibly my favorite song of all time, and GHWT will feature said song. When it was announced that you could make your own tracks, the first song I thought of was Everlong. Oh, IGN revealed a butt load of other new features like character creations and the new touch sensitive guitar as well in their preview which you can, and should, read by CLICKING HERE!

Now the only question is where I will store 2 freakin drum kits....

Video Games Live...

7pm on a Saturday here in Las Vegas. As I get out of the car, I check the temperature on the dashboard. 110 degrees. The sun is setting on the other end of the amphitheater making me squint, and the 5 lines are at least 50 people deep to get in the doors. I see Pac-Man t shirts, some dudes dressed up like Dr. Mario, lots of dudes in camo with toy guns, and more Mario and Zelda shirts, hats and costumes than at a Hot Topic stock room. Why have all us nerdy folk gathered in such blistering heat? To attend the Video Games Live concert of course!


Started in July 2005 by game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, the first concert had 11,000 people show up in Hollywood to watch the LA philharmonic perform live versions of popular game music. This year, there will be over 50 performances by local orchestras, headed by Tallarico (as MC and guitar player) and Wall (conductor and hype man). The show has turned into a celebration of the gaming world, and while the main focus of the show is the music, so much more takes place.

Before the show started, the audience judged a cosplay contest, while others competed for high scores in Space Ivaders and Guitar Hero 3 outside of the auditorium. During the show, a Frogger competition took place while the orchestra played live, changing the music depending on the gameplay. One lucky winner (see picture below) got to wear a Space Invaders tshirt, and run across the stage trying to clear the first level using his body. Voice actor extraordinaire Dee Baker not only proved to us he IS Olmec, but did a live recording as one of the berserkers from Gears of War. A meet and greet afterwards allowed us to meet many of the former Westwood Studios employees, most now with Petroglyph, along with almost everyone mentioned above, from Tallarico and Wall, to Dee Baker and the stunning and sweet as sugar Becky Young.


What about the music you ask? The show started with a bang with a medely of classic game music, including games like Tetris, Frogger, Ghosts n Goblins, Dragons Lair, Donkey Kong, Gauntlet and others. A video from Hideo Kojima introduced the music from Metal Gear Solid, Koji Kondo introduced music from the Mario and Zelda series, and David Jaffe brought us God of War. Moving pieces from Medal of Honor and Civilization put a hush over the crowd. Web famous Martin Leung performed a medly of Uematsu piano pieces from the Final Fantasy series, and even performed the original Mario theme blind folded. Frank Klepacki rocked out with his Command and Conquer theme. They even premiered a track from Starcraft 2, a game that is not out yet, so this is the first time this music has been heard. And, of course, to close the show, the big tracks from Halo, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy VII (ONE-WINGED ANGEL FTW!) and Castlevania brought the audience to their feet.

When you think of a show being performed by an orchestra, you don't really expect the crowd to be shouting, hollering and laughing during the performance. Video Games Live brought together a group of people in a unique environment that was easily one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. If this show comes to your town, you need to go and witness it for yourself. Words cannot adequately describe the atmosphere and fun that this simple premise has produced. Whether it is Tommy Tallarico's LED Pong shirt, the crowd shouting out "KINGDOM HEARTS" after TT asked who liked Disney and Square (they played the orchestral Hikari theme of course, which, amazingly enough, you can see RIGHT HERE!) or the general social nature of the crowd, everyone who goes to see Video Games Live will leave with a sense of whimsy and delight, and rush home to pop in their favorite game, although maybe just to listen to it for a while.

Thank Goodness There Is No Insurance Mini-Game...

It has happened. GTA4 (Grand Theft Auto 4, for those of you cave dwelling folk (which, if in a cave, how on earth do you have a computer and internet?)) has finally sunk it's teeth into me. I am about 15 hours into the game, and officially loving every minute of it. Want to get an idea of the fun I am having? Here is what I did just in the last hour of gameplay.


I drove an SUV from Bohan (Queens) into Algonquin (Manhattan) and bought some body armor and uzi ammo. I bumped into an old friend from the boat over to the US selling hand bags, and drove him over to get some money from a guy who owed him. The dude took off, and we hunted him down in a high speed chase, and got the money back. With some new cash, I bought a stylish new shirt, fancy jeans and brown loafers. I walked across the street into a car dealership, went upstairs, got into the seat of a Ferrari, drove it directly out of the 2nd story window and onto the streets. With my new speed machine, it took mere seconds to escape the pursuing cops. I drove into Times Square and jumped off of a conveniently placed dumpster over half of the plaza. With my car pretty much totaled now, I got off and walked down to the lower east side, and took a helicopter tour of the city. Once the tour was complete, I ripped the pilot out of his seat, and took my new toy for some joy riding under several of the cities bridges. After catching the attention of the cops and getting a full 6-star wanted level, I flew back Bohan, with police copters on my tail, and cop cars directly under me. I landed directly in front of my safe house, went inside, and took a well deserved nap. And yes, when I started the game back up again, my helicopter was still there in my parking space.

I am quite surprised at how much I am enjoying GTA4. I was ready to be disappointed and bored and underwhelmed while simultaneously being overwhelmed, but the game does an incredible job of slowly and methodically teaching you how the game works, and what is necessary to succeed. Gun battles are no problem any more, I can easily control almost any vehicle, and I no longer need the GPS or map to get thru all of Broker and Bohan, and half of Algonquin.

Yes, there are problems. Escaping the cops can either be the simplest 5 second escape, or an impossible onslaught that you will never escape. If you fail a mission 75% of the way through, you must completely start over from the very beginning, which is extremely taxing in the longer missions (I am looking at you Snow Storm!). The AI for the cars is the single most annoying aspect of the game. Other drivers tend to follow your lead, so they go the same speed as you, making it very hard to get around cars on highways or on bridges when going fast. Sometimes all of the cars on the road will suddenly, all at once, slam on their brakes, or all slam into the walls of the road for no reason. And do not get me started on waiting at the toll booth; it can take 30 seconds for a car to pay and pull forward.

But in the end, the fun you have far outweighs these complaints. The voice acting is very well done, with the only downright bad acting done for a character that you later find out is under cover, so the acting is probably done bad on purpose because the person is acting. The level of detail still astonishes me, with cab rides actually a bit fun when you can just watch the city go buy. I am only 28% of the way through according to the stats, so I have a ways to go, but I think I will enjoy the rest of the ride quite a bit.

Picture courtesy http://endersgames.wordpress.com/

Special Deliveries...

This weekend has blessed me with two beautiful bundles of joy. Two gifts that are as special and wonderful as any gift imaginable. One came out of a large cardboard box, and the other from my sister's stomach. I will let you figure out which is which.

Click to embiggen

First is my new HDTV. It is a Samsung LN-T4069F, 1080P 120hz 40" LCD. Yeah, a 40" at 1080p, I know, not usually necessary on a TV this size, but there is a noticeable difference on this set compared to others of its ilk. Also, 120hz, so yay! I got an incredible deal, 42% total off at Best Buy during their Memorial Day sales. A buddy let me borrow his 360 HD-DVD drive (I would buy one if I could find one cheap) and the picture quality is amazing. I will be getting a PS3 soon so I can take advantage of this baby and the Blu-Ray drive soon, but want to find a nice deal first. So far my only complaint is that standard def programming is quite blockier than my old HD set, and some small writing is very hard to see in 480i/p.

Click to embiggen

The other big happening was my sister had her first baby, my first nephew. His name is Adam, he is 5lb 13oz, very small even at full term, and was born Friday, May 30th at 7pm. There are plenty of more pictures up on my MySpace, and I will keep adding, so check them out there.

Spring 08 Recap Part 2...

SPOILER ALERT! THAR BE SPOILERS HERE!!!

The following opinions will be done in a tongue-in-cheek style, making it VERY hard to understand what is being said, hence the reason I am typing it instead of doing this orally. So let us take a look behind the scenes at how some of the big movies were made for this spring/summer.

Indiana Jones- Crystal Skull: The following conversation took place at some point in the past. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Stephan Speelbergo: Hey, Georgia.
Goergia Locust: Yes, Stephan?
SS: Make a list of your 4 favorite movies that I have done.
GL: No problem! I would go with that Jurassic dinosaur movie, that alien one with the Extra Terrestrial, the one that had those Close Encounters, and the one we did together, with the archaeologist, Dr Jones, and his wacky adventures.
SS: Excellent choices! Let us combine all of those movies, and make it into one big sequel!
GL: But do you think that will take things too far, all those genres rolled into one?
SS: Absolutely

So, Indy... fun movie, good time, but I have so many gripes. Like I said above, it was like SS and GL got together and just made a movie using everything from their previous efforts. This movie was heavily inspired and paid a lot of tribute to Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the whole alien theme went too far. The first three Indy movies were about mystical objects with a power imbued by God, good or evil. This one just blew the whole magical powers thing out of the water. I would have enjoyed it more if the aliens had simply left behind some artifact, and once returned, it gave knowledge and disappeared. The fact that the aliens were actually there and the ship takes off at the end... not cool. Oh, and if you didn't see the Mutt "twist" coming, you have never read a book, watched a TV show, or seen a movie in your entire life.

Chronicals of Narnia: Prince Caspian- The following conversation took place at some point in the past. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Andy Adamdad: Hey random person I am bumping into on the street, what was your favorite part of the first Narnia movie
Bum: The journey of the children, the quest they were sent on, the suspense of wondering what obstacle they would need to get around next.
AA: Oh, ok. What about the fights?
Bum: You mean the big battle at the end? It was cool, good fun, but nowhere near the best part of the movie, or what made the books such a great memory for all the children the world over.
AA: So the fights were your favorite parts?
Bum: What? No. The fights are the LEAST important part of the books and the story!
AA: Well, GREAT NEWS! The 2nd Narnia movie will be NOTHING but battles! No quest, no journey, no exposition, no character development AT ALL, just lots of battles!
Bum: Can I go now please?

Yeah, so, Prince Caspian, another fun ride, but very disappointing overall when you look at what makes the books so special, and what makes a good movie. Three epic battles are great and all, but where was my freaking character development and motivation? MOTIVATION PEOPLE! When the best two parts of your movie are dudes being dropped by griffins into a castle and Anna Poppelwell's face, you didn't do a very good job. A fun watch, but not what the books are about.

Death Cab For Cutie: DCfC just released their latest album, Narrow Stairs, and have been on tour promoting it, and I was lucky enough to be at one of their concerts recently. The show was really great, they know their audience and played to it well. They played only 2 tracks from Narrow Stairs, and those 2 tracks are two of my 3 favorites from the new album. Overall, despite the fact that poor Ben Gibbard had no monitor in his ear for the first 3 songs, they did an amazing job of just playing great music. A lot of bands their size get into a problem of having the levels blasting all over so you cannot really hear the music itself, so major props go to the band's sound designer for the concert at doing an amazing job. Photos of the show can be seen on my MySpace page.
As for Narrow Stairs, I am disappointed at the way the album came out. There are 3 great tracks, Bixby Canyon Bridge, I Will Possess Your Heart (although the 4.5 minute opening can be a bit annoying when you just want to hear the song) and You Can Do Better Than Me. The previous album, Plans, was amazing, and one of my favorite albums of all time, so this one had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, the sounds that DCfC has defined for me is not that present, with a lot of dark music, black sounds, and depressing songs all around. A good effort, but not up to par with Plans.

WHATS NEXT: Two big deliveries that I will be talking about very soon. As for movies, Adam Sandler's Zohan looks fun, Hulk (maybe, still not sold on Ed Norton), The Happening (cmon Shyamalan!), Get Smart, Wall-E, Hancock, Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight, Mama Mia, Step Brothers, The Mummy 3, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and City of Ember.... we have a LOT to look forward to over the next few months... holy shnikies!

I Hate You Activision...

I hate you Activision, in case you were too lazy to read the headline...

You confirmed today the newest Guitar Hero game will be Guitar Hero World Tour, which will include not only Guitar and Bass, but now the drums and mic too. Long story short, you are officially making a Rock Band "clone" and I have been pissed about it for a while.

Here is why: I already spent $170 for Rock Band and $100 on Guitar Hero 3 to get 2 guitars, a drum kit and a mic. Now, you are coming out with a completely different drum kit, and from the looks of it, this thing and the Rock Band drums will be in no way compatible with each other. My TV area is a small 10x10 room, and the RB drums and 3 guitars I have barely fit in there as it is, and now you are releasing your own drum kit and expect us to pay the premium AND have space to hold the new kit? By alienating the 3 million plus drum kit owners out there, they run the risk of having no one wanting to buy their game, and just making people upset in general.

And today, I am even more pissed. The official announcement reveals that not only will there be an "unprecedented" level of songs to pick from, but also the ability to create your own custom tracks to play in the game, and a battle of the band mode. It also appears that you can have multiple guitar parts, rhythm guitar and lead guitar. Oh, and bands like the Eagles and Sublime will have their songs in the game too. So why am I more pissed today? Because now I really want the damn game.

I hate you Activision....

Spring 08 recap....

SPOILER ALERT! THAR BE SPOILERS HERE!!!

So what have I been up to lately? I have been keeping quite busy as a matter of fact. Here are some highlights and opinions on what I have been up to:

Iron Man: What a way to start the summer movie season! Iron Man is up there with Batman Begins and Spider-Man and X-Men for the best movie adaptation from a comic book. Top 3 over X-Men actually. RBJr did an amazing job of being himself, which brought, albeit a different take, on the Tony Stark character to life. No alcoholism, and now everyone knows (or thinks) he is Iron Man, so there are some differences.
The fan service stuff was fantastic too! Rhodey commenting "next time" on the silver/grey armor, the Ten Rings terrorist syndicate, the whole SHIELD thing (which I figured out literally as the dude was about to say it) and of course, the after credits "Avenger Initiative" scene was just pure unadulterated fan service.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Another good movie from some of the Apatow crew. Jason Segel did an excellent job for his first script, and finding out how it so closely reflected many of his real life failures and experiences made it better. It takes real balls to put yourself out there like that, but anyone who has seen the movie could tell you that Segel has no trouble there. My favorite line? The "and now I have the freshest cereal" line still has me giggling, mainly for it's delivery. Also, Maria Thayer in a major motion picture, you go girl! I would actually go so the Dracula puppet musical by the way.

Walk Hard- The Dewey Cox Story: This movie should have been called LAUGH HARD! HA! Seriously, go watch this movie. When it came out in theaters (pronounced thee-ay-tears) it got passed over quickly, and no one wanted to see it with me. Finally on DVD, I got to see it. I love movies that don't even try to take themselves seriously and consistently break the fourth wall. Most parody movies as of late (meaning anything since Scary Movie) have been utter crap, but this one aced it. Oh, and without a doubt, Jenna Fischer is one of the most funny and beautiful women ever. Go rent it already, it costs a freakin dollar at Red Box!

House: Can House do any wrong? No, I think not! Am I biased? Well, yeah, duh. The final two episodes of the season, especially the first of the two, House's Head, were excellent as usual. House's Head really broke free from the mold, and created a very trippy and fun ride, and the finale was genuinely moving and well played. It was nice to let the show be about the characters more than the medicine, just like in the first 2 seasons. Wilson has been House's single support system since their college days, and having that not only taken away, but having House be the reason, is very interesting storytelling. And props to the writers for the fan service "you can't always get what you want" line. It brought a big smile to my face.

GTA4: What can I say that hasn't already been said? Grand Theft Auto 4 is a lot of fun, and has an amazingly detailed and living world. Am I having fun though? Well, yes and no. I am at the age now where I do not always have 3+ hours to sit and play a game, and GTA4 requires quite a bit of dedication. I am about 8 hours in, and am finally at the point where I can start doing single missions without having to worry that my phone will be ringing every 2 seconds with another mission that I am practically forced to take, or penalized for ignoring.
Oh, and for those of you who don't know, you can turn off the phone and the story mode! There is an option in the phone that lets you turn off messages and calls so you can freely roam around and have wacky car jacky fun. The manual and even in game tutorials (which I am still going through... there is a LOT to learn) never mention this feature, making it extremely difficult to pop in for a quick 30 minute session. Now that I have Little Jacob as a friend, have email access and can take cab fares, I can play for 45 minutes before going to bed instead of worrying about getting stuck in the game an hour passed the time I want to get into bed.
Are there issues other than that? Sure. Like the cops will stop chasing you when a mission ends, taking away from the realism and suspense. Trees are made of solid steel, which lamp posts and poles are made of ply wood. And I suck at free aiming when using weapons, the characters are usually too small on screen to make this useful.
But again, am I having fun? For the most part, definitely. I love that I now know the city and its streets well enough that I actually know where I am (at least on the main island) and the story is really done quite well. I still have a very long way to go, but so far, now that I have learned how the game works, I am looking forward to getting to the end of this one.

R.I.P. - 2005-2008

Back in later 2005, a quick trip to Walmart lead me to the shampoo aisle. I soon found myself picking up a bottle of Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo, with 20% Free with purchase. The 20% came in the actual bottle, so no fancy mail ordering or moving liquid from one container to another was necessary.

Since that time, I have washed my hair between 3 and 4 times each week. That is 3.3 times per week on average for 2.5 years. That comes out to approximately 415 times that I have washed my hair, and every time, I used this shampoo, and the bottle has only run out now.

Many say the bottle was blessed. Some say the bottle was cursed. Some say water got into the bottle during each shower because I never clicked the cap closed. No matter the reason, this single bottle of shampoo has lasted me for two and a half years. It has been a good friend, a descent source or hair cleaning product, and constant reminder of inappropriate Adam Sandler song lyrics.

Tonight, we say farwell to my close friend, Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo with 20% Free with purchase that did not run out for 2.5 years. Or, as I always referred to it as, "SDCSw20%Fwptdnrof2.5y."

Goodnight sweet prince!

It Is Like Watching Moving Pictures On My TV!...

Nintendo launched the brilliantly named Nintendo Channel earlier this week for the Wii. The Channel does several things, including show game preview movies and interviews with Nintendo muckamucks like Miyamoto himself. The service also does things in the background, like detect your type of TV, how often you play games, and even what types of games you play. The service sends this info back to Nintendo, and will even provide you with game recommendations depending on what you play.

My favorite aspect of this service is the free DS game demos. Simply access the game you wish to try, turn on your DS, and presto, free demo for upcoming and already released games. Last night I tried out Ninja Gaiden DS and Jam Sessions. And ya know what? I had so much fun with Jam Sessions that I went online and bought the damn thing! Got it cheap too :)

What does this teach us? That if you give people a chance to try the product, consumers may actually purchase it! WHAT A FASCINATING CONCEPT!

Let us hope that Wii game demos and Virtual Console demos appear at some point, and that we get no shortage of things to try. While Nintendo is still "winning" the current hardware war in pure number of units sold (namely, all of the ones they build are sold) they have been lacking in software and Wii specific features. This is another step in the right direction, but until we get rid of freaking game-specific Friend Codes and see more AAA titles, I will keep playing my 360 more often than my Wii.

Buffy Top 10: Part 5...

#5 Who Are You?: Faith is my 2nd favorite character in the Buffyverse, following Giles as my numero uno. Her character is the most fascinating and curious of all the characters Joss has created. From her initial taking over of Buffy's life, to the unstable renegade teenager, to the murderous right hand to Mayor Wilkins, her journey has always kept me glued to the TV. So when Faith came out of her coma, and was back on the scene towards the end of season 4, I was expecting something good. What I got, was something great.

Without a doubt, the best acting by in the series is done here by Eliza Dushku. Long story short (I never get tired of saying that), Mayor Wilkins leaves Faith a device that will allow her to swap bodies with someone else, and of course, she swaps with Buffy. This is actually a 2 parter, with This Year's Girl preceding the episode, containing Faith's awakening, finding the weapon and battle with Buffy. That episode ends with Faith having just body swapped with Buffy, but no one except the audience is aware. Mind you, the only way you KNOW they swapped is because when Joyce asks "Buffy" if she is OK, after knocking out "Faith", Faith-in-Buffy responds with a sinister 5 by 5.

Eliza Dushku captures Sarah Michelle Gellar's mannerisms and speech patterns perfectly. The scene where Buffy-in-Faith goes into Gile's apartment, trying to convince him that she is not actually Faith is the best of all. The dialogue goes as follows:

Giles: "Look, I know what you are going to say, and..."
BiF: "I'm Buffy."
Giles: "All right, I didn't know what you were going to say, but that doesn't make you any less crazy. If you are Buffy, then you will let me tie you up without killing me until we find whether you are telling the truth."
BiF: "Giles, Faith has taken my body, and for all I know she's taken it to Mexico by now. I don't have time for bondage fun. Ask me a question, ask me anything."
Giles: "Who's President?"
BiF: "We're checking for Buffy, not a concussion. Giles, you turned into a demon, and I knew it was you. I mean, can't you just look in my eyes and be all intuitive?
Giles: How did I turn into a demon?
BiF: Oh, 'cause, uh, Ethan Rayne. And-and you have a girlfriend named Olivia... and you haven't had a job since we blew up the school... which is valid lifestyle-wise. I mean, it's not like you're a slacker type, but - Oh, oh! When I had psychic power I heard my mother think that you were like a stevedore during sex. Do you want me to continue?"
Giles: "Actually I beg you to stop."
BiF: "What's a stevedore?"

Only a long time fan would truly understand how wonderful this scene, and Eliza's job in it, truly is. But there is more to this episode than just the acting. We once again get to see the vilification's of the Watcher's Council, it is confirmed for the first time that Willow and Tara have more than just a friendship forming, and we learn that Tara is a more powerful and intuitive witch than those we have seen before. This chain of events also leads to the crossover with Angel in L.A. where Faith finally accepts her bad choices and tries to make amends, with some excellent Angel episodes from his freshman season.

I can't figure out how to close this post out.... so I will leave you with Faith in Buffy talking to spike:
Spike: "You know why I really hate you, Summers?"
Faith-in-Buffy: "'Cause I'm a stuck-up tight-ass with no sense of fun?"
Spike: "Well, yeah, that covers a lot of it."
Faith-in-Buffy: "'Cause I can do anything I want, and instead I choose to pout and whine and feel the burden of Slayerness? I mean, I could be rich. I could be famous. I could have anything. Anyone. Even you, Spike. I could ride you at a gallop until your legs buckled and your eyes rolled up. I've got muscles you've never even dreamed of. I could squeeze you until you popped like warm champagne, and you would beg me to hurt you just a little bit more. And you know why I don't? (pauses) Because it's wrong."

Buffy Top 10: Part 4...

#4 Becoming (Parts 1&2): Becoming might be the most appropriately named Buffy episode, as it truly defined what the show was about, and specifically, formed Buffy into the woman she is today. The 2^nd season finale, these 2 episodes, aired a week apart, proved to any non-believer that Buffy, as a show, had a lot more to it than just some skinny blonde chick kicking demon ass.

So much is revealed shown and in these episodes, namely how Angel became a vampire, Willow’s first time with witchcraft, Spike showing that he is more than the average vampire, how insane Angelus is compared to the average demon, and Buffy revealing to her mother that she is the Slayer.

Long long LOOOONG story short, Buffy is out for blood now that Angel, soul-less and evil after sleeping with Buffy and having one moment of true happiness, has killed Ms Calendar and harassed Buffy and pals non-stop. Angel wants to awaken the demon Acathla , who will suck the world into Hell. Angel kidnaps and tortures Giles on how to awaken the demon, Spike sides with Buffy, as he doesn’t actually want the world to end and wants Drucilla back to being his alone, and Drucilla injures Willow and Xander, and kills Kendra without a drop of sweat. Buffy marches into battle against Angel, fighting him in an epic sword fight. Buffy has nowhere to go, everyone has either died or abandoned her.

Acathla’s mouth opens, and the world starts being sucked into Hell. Buffy has the advantage, and is about to finish both Angel and Acathla by driving the sword through Angel into the demon statue. Buffy pulls back her sword, ready to plunge, when suddenly, Angel changes, his soul returns thanks to Willow back in the hospital. Realizing what must be done, Buffy says her tearful goodbye to the confounded Angel, then thrusts her sword through her love, and sends Angel to Hell, and closing the portal.

The season ends with Buffy leaving town, no one knowing what actually happened in the battle with Angel and where Buffy has gone. You can read more about my personal experience with this episode and it’s close by CLICKING HERE! Buffy’s sacrifice to save the world cemented the show, and Buffy’s place in history, and proved to the world that, yes, you guessed it, Joss Whedon is evil.

Buffy Top 10: Part 3...

#3 Hush: Other than being evil (see previous post) Joss Whedon is probably best known for having amazing dialogue in all of his works, from Buffy to Firefly to Toy Story.... yes, Toy Story. So it came as a big surprise to many that the much hyped 10th episode of the 4th season of Buffy, titled Hush, would contain very little speaking at all. Other than the lack of much dialogue, Hush is also best known for being the only episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that was nominated for an Acadamy Award for writing.

The episode starts out with Buffy daydreaming in class (about new beau Riley (few dates, no kiss yet)) with the daydream turning into a strange nightmare, with a little girl singing a song about demons named The Gentlemen. She tells Giles about the dream, and he says he will research it. Willow is still recovering from Oz's recent departure, and decides to join the college Wicca group, who discuss nothing about magic and spells, and instead discuss bake sales and "menstrual lifeforce." When she points out the lack of magic talk, she is mocked by the group, except for one young lady, named Tara, who seems quite eager to hear more of what Willow has to say. Anya is on Xander's back about what their relationship is about other than "lots of orgasms." Meanwhile, Giles is entertaining a female friend from the UK, and has had the neutered Spike moved to Xander's basement for the visit. This is discussed in one of the best lines of the season:

Giles: I have a friend who's coming to town, and I'd like us to be alone.
Anya: Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?
Giles: Yes, that's exactly the most appalling thing you could have said.

After all this exposition, The Gentleman appear and steal the voices of everyone in Sunnydale. This is where things get interesting. We start with Buffy and Willow realizing they have no voices, and then Xander tries calling Buffy on the phone, realizing that there is no way to communicate, and he starts blaming Spike for their current situation. Everyone arrives at Giles' and they watch a newscast announcing the current predicament. The newscasters voice is the last one we hear until the end of the episode, and all of the acting is pantomime. This is what makes Hush so incredible, is everything that happens while no one is able to talk.

Some brilliant scenes come out of the silence. Buffy and Riley finally kiss while helping the towns people at night, helping to prevent the mayhem caused by a town now gone mad. When Xander returns to Giles' apartment, he finds spike hanging over Anya's sleeping frame with blood around his mouth, and Xander, believing Spike has attacked Anya, jumps to the rescue, making Anya quite happy, and frisky. The best scene of all is the one where Giles explains to the Scoobies what The Gentleman are and why they are in Sunnydale. Camille Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" plays while Giles uses an overhead projector to show his crudely drawn pictures of The Gentleman and Buffy. This scene is one of the funniest in the series, despite the masturbatory and boobies related humor. This is also where Willow and Tara finally meet, warding off one of the Gentleman, which winds up being a big turn for the series.

The Gentleman and their helpers are amazingly well done. They are very pale, almost bone white men in black suits. They have enormous toothy grins, and use slow, methodical movements. Imagine polite skeletons with tight skin and you will get the idea. The Gentlemen float slowly through the air with an eerie calm about them. To contrast their subtle ways, their henchmen are loping, arm flailing demons, wrapped in straight jackets and chains.

As if there was any doubt, Buffy, with the aide of Riley, defeat The Gentleman and gets everyone's voices back. During the fight, Buffy and Riley both realize that the other is something more than merely college students, and the episode ends with them seeing that they both need to explain who and what they are. In another brilliant ending, Joss ends the episode with the following, taken directly from the Hush script (which I actually own):

Riley: Well. I guess we have to talk.
Buffy: I guess we do.
(The two sit in awkward, dead silence.)
Credits Roll

XBox Live Equals Love...

With my new bowel shaking Guitar Hero powers, aka my kickassedness on Hard and Expert, I have had a desire recently to test my metal (no pun intended) against other players. Saturday night, I logged onto the online multiplayer for Guitar Hero 3 to put my skills to the test.

I played about 10 songs against other players. Three separate times, I played against the same competitor, who I will call CrazyMonkey for reference. Each time, we were very evenly matched, with him taking 2 wins, and me taking 1. CrazyMonkey used his headset to communicate during and after matches, with normal comments like "Aww man!" when he messed up and "Nice match" when he won, always gracious.

On our fourth and final match, I chose Paint It Black on Expert. I immediately took the lead and for the whole match dominated CrazyMonkey. At the end of the match, I had a score three times greater than his.

Instead of his normal, gracious losing speech, he presented me with this, in a completely matter-of-fact voice: "Whatever dude, have your little victory, I am going to f**k your mom now."

Thank you, internet, for showing me so much about humanity.

Buffy Top 10: Part 2...

Starting my series of mini-reviews about my favorite Buffy episodes. You can read my previous post by CLICKING HERE!

#2: The Body- Joss Whedon is evil, and I absolutely love him for it. The season 5 episode The Body is the proof. A big part of season 5 is Buffy's mom Joyce going through a health scare with a brain tumor. Buffy, used to fighting off her demons, at first refuses to accept that nothing can be done to help her mom, but slowly accepts the truth. Over the months, Joyce goes through surgery and appears fully healed. In the episode prior to The Body, called I Was Made To Love You, Joyce is back on the dating scene, full head of hair and back at work, full of life and energy. The episode ends with Buffy coming home to find Joyce dead on the couch. The Body starts right where the last episode left off (last scene in previous episode is first here) with Buffy finding Joyce, and it sinks in how evil Joss Whedon truly is.

We spend all season worrying about Joyce, and during I Was Made To Love You, she is back to her old self, doing better in fact than before the tumor! Buffy and Dawn tease her about her hair and outfit, Joyce makes jokes about forgetting her bra in her date's car, and the new guy even sends her flowers the next day. The fact that, for 15 episodes, we watch as Joyce gets sick, recovers, and is then better than ever is what makes her death even more traumatic. If she had just died suddenly, or during her medical scare, yes, it would have been sad, but not shocking. Writing and planning like this is what makes Joss Whedon so incredible.

The acting in The Body is just as good as the planning and writing. Everything from Buffy's jaw gaping slog around her house, her screaming at Giles not to touch "the body", Willow's freaking out about clothing choices, Anya's desperate pleas for someone to explain why Joyce is dead, and Tara's stoic support to all involved are all heart wrenching performances that truly showcase these actor's abilities. And, for the first time, we actually care about Dawn.

There are 4 moments that stand out for me in The Body. The first is when Buffy is on the phone with 911 and has the following conversation with the tech:

Buffy (putting her hand on Joyce): She's cold.
911 Operator (pause): The body's cold?
Buffy: No, my mom! Sh-should I make her warm?

Buffy not equating "the body" with her mother shows how she will not accept what has happened. The second, as I mentioned, is when Giles arrives and Buffy shouts at him as he dashes to check on Joyce, "We're not supposed to move the body!" and slaps her hands over her mouth, finally for the first time truly realizing what is happening. The third moment for me is when Willow and Xander hug in her dorm room. There is nothing special happening, there are many other much more dramatic moments, but the moment these two best friends hug, I lose it. That is my we're-not-supposed-to-move-the-body moment. And finally, Anya's tirade about life and death: "But I don't understand! I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's, there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore! It's stupid! It's mortal and stupid! And, and Xander's crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why."

Visually, Joss did a lot with The Body as well. Some shots are framed so perfectly I have a hard time believing he didn't spend hours on each shot. And more subtle queues like Dawn's art project (drawing a picture of what basically looks like a dead woman's body in the same pose as Joyce) are delightfully dark. And the episode ends where so many directors and visionaries would refuse to let it; right before the big moment. Dawn and Buffy lie on the floor of the morgue after dusting a vampire that was in the room with the other bodies. The sheet that covered Joyce's corpse has fallen, and her cold dead body lies on the table. Buffy is frozen in fear. Dawn is wide eyed and curious and reaches slowly to touch her dead mother's skin, and right before she does, fade to black, the end.

Buffy Top 10: Part 1...

As many of you know, I have been rewatching the entire run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD for the past few months. There has been a lot of nostalgia, both good and bad, but rewatching many of my favorite episodes have brought new light to old memories. When it is all said and done, I decided to make a list of my 10 favorite Buffy episodes, both for myself and for others to read about.

My favorite episodes of all time are:
1) Once More With Feeling
2) The Body
3) Hush
4) Becoming (1+2)
5) Who Are You?
6) Restless
7) Innocence
8) The Puppet Show
9) Tabula Rasa
10) The Zeppo

While 1-3 represent my favorites in order, 4-10 are in no particular order. This being Buffy we are talking about, things get a little different when we talk about seasons and villains. For example, my favorite seasons, from most favorite to least are:
1) Season 2
2) Season 3
3) Season 1
4) Season 4
5) Season 5
6) Season 6
7) Season 7

Notice that the only season 2 episodes on my first list are Becoming and Innocence, but it is my favorite season overall. And no, 6 is not at the bottom of my list, with OMWF and Tabula Rasa on the list, with Life Serial and Gone close to making it. Point to make as well, and that is 7 is not a bad season either, just the least note worthy.

And what about the villains?! My favorite villains are:
1) Mayor Richard Wilkens
2) Faith
3) Spike
4) The Master

Over the next few weeks, I am going to post my opinions on my top 10 episodes, mini reviews of each one. To start with, I already wrote a bit about Once More With Feeling back in November, which you can read by CLICKING HERE! I will write about The Body later this week, then so on and so forth for a little while. If you guys like what I write, I will start doing more on other shows like Angel and Firefly, etc, etc.

X-Play Nice Children...

Videos may take a few moments to load

X-Play, G4's flagship show, has received a lot of flack from both gamers and TV viewers, two completely different groups of people who have nothing in common. While many criticisms are valid, 2008 has been a standout year for the show. 4 months into their new format, they are clearly listening to their critics, in obvious ways like shortening a 45 second opening down to 10 seconds, putting a nice Daily Show style spin on the daily gaming news, getting rid of the horrendous in show forum/chat pop up every 2 seconds, but also in subtler ways some people might not take note of, like taking huge segments of time, and dedicating that time to serious topics.

Most recently, Adam Sessler (the reason other than Morgan Webb's boobs that the show lasted during the dark times (that is not a dig on Morgan, just a sad, pathetic truth)) spoke with Dr Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson of Harvard's mental health and media department about their $1,500,000 government funded study about how video games effect children, which they cleverly titled Grand Theft Childhood. It is a very interesting topic and handled so well by Sessler and X-Play. It would be so easy for the show to be childish and "I told you so" about video game violence with children, but instead, they let the experts do all the talking and make themselves look smarter for doing so.

Check out the segment below:



I am also a big fan of Sessler's Soapbox, a rant on various topics every week or so. You can view his latest diatribe about the Resident Evil 5 racist controvery below:

Props to Amazon...

Way to go Amazon.com! Long story short, I bought the Buffy Chosen Collection back in 2005 when it was released. I have yet to watch the entire series, in order anyway. Today, ready to watch the 3rd season finale and.... no 3rd season finale disk... Searched and searched, both physically and mentally/memoryally, and really and truly, no disk. I decided to try and call Amazon, see if they would be of any help, low expectations abound. Well, long story story short (didn't I already say that?) they couldn't replace anything, and Fox will only cover for a little while so they would have been no help at all. After speaking with the Amazon dude for a few more minutes, he agreed to pay for half of the cost of replacing the 1 season from which the disk is missing. He didn't owe me anything, didn't have to give me a dime, but he split the cost of replacing a DIFFERENT product from 3 years ago!

Nice work Amazon!

The Ancient Ghost of Irony...

UPDATE: SEE BOTTOM OF POST FOR NEW INFO

UPDATE 2: No, the song is not the song Angel... c'mon people...

I recently started rewatching the entire Buffy TV series on DVD. I own the Chosen collection, which is 1 big box with all 144 episodes. Today, I watched the 2nd season finale, the amazing Becoming two part episode. But I am not here to talk about the show itself, I am here to tell a story.

Many many many many years ago (like 9) my best friend and I decided to enter this big contest in the Games puzzle magazine. The contest involved answering many questions, and each question would somehow give a hint to the final question, which, if you could answer, entered you into the grand prize. The questions varied from "simple" mathematic equations, to knowing about historic events, to finding out about a specific painting and how much a bottle of shampoo in that painting cost. We hunted down answers everywhere from the then limited internet, up to and including heading all the way into center city Philadelphia to the city's big library to hunt down answers. Ok, he did most of it... but I was all helpy and supporty.

One of the questions what right up my alley. The answer we needed was which Sarah McLachlan song played at the end of the 2nd season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I did not know. I could remember only a bit about the song. Now remember, this was before the internet had every piece of information available at your fingertips. I could recall a tiny segment of the tune, and a few lyrics. After finally finding a short clip on a website, I was able to get the lyrics "and I claw for solid ground." I even learned to play the few notes on the piano, a musical instrument that still mocks me to this day. But that tiny segment of the song is all we had to go on.

My best friend's friend, and one of our classmates, he found out, is/was a big McLachlan fan. He played the little ditty for me, I mentioned the lyrics, and not even she knew the full song... but she did own the piano books for her albums. After a lot of searching, we found the song was on an album called Surfacing, and the song was called Full of Grace. I still have a fond memory of this song, the hunt for the title, and that moment in the episode where Buffy's mom comes up the stairs, and those lyrics play.

Fast forward to an hour ago. I am watching the 2nd half of Becoming, the episode in question. The song starts to play. Buffy has just killed Angel and sent him to hell. Tears are pouring. Memories of the episode and our quest flood back. Then, I see Kristine Sutherland start to walk up the stairs. The lyrics begin... "and I claw for solid gr.........." Heh..... freeze frame... odd, I didn't touch the remote... Then the familiar XBox 360 bloink noise, and a message pops up "Attempting to read media." The disk cannot be read. It cannot be read AT THE EXACT MOMENT THAT PART OF THE SONG IS PLAYING.

I eject the disk, put it back, try another device... but there is something wrong with the disk AT THAT EXACT MOMENT. It winds up playing if I let it sit for a minute or two, but every device and every time, the disk freezes at this exact moment. So, long story short, the ancient ghost of irony has decided to freak me out a bit today.

UPDATE:
From Andrew, the best friend guy: "it's really funny to think of the internet as NOT being the mecca for all answers to all life, isn't it? i mean, we got that video of the commercial for the episode on the internet but couldn't find the episode. then when we nailed the little bit of lyric, we couldn't find it in context. that same question would've taken us ten minutes today, and from the time we actively started working on it, until the time Caitlin gave us the sheet music...had to be several weeks. straaaaaange..." More in the comments section.

Define lazy....

How lazy am I? The keyboard was a little too far away from me, but the mouse was at hand. I wanted to look up Ghostbusters on IMDB. Again, keyboard, not within reach. So instead of actually getting up, I brainstormed. I went to the Coming Soon section on the site, found Street Kings. Street Kings features Hugh Laurie of House fame, which now features Kal Penn, who stars in Harold and Kumar which had a cameo by Neil Patrick Harris who works with Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother whose first movie was My Stepmother is an Alien which starred Dan Aykroyd... who played Dr Ray Stantz in.... GHOSTBUSTERS! No keyboard required.

EDIT: Yes, I realize in hindsight that Kal Penn was in the Buffy episode "Beer Bad". The reason I did not recall this fact at first? BECAUSE THE EPISODE WAS BEER BAD!

The Greatest Gift of all...

This past week was that one week each year that my birthday happens to occur during. Also, screwy sentence structure reared its ugly head. I know, wacky. So what did I get? Other than a kick ass party with a large number of beautiful women (some dudes were there too....) and the prerequisite mommy made bday cake, a few good things happened on or around my big day.

Smash Bros: My Wii has been rather lonely lately. Mario Galaxy has long laid dormant... ok, lie, it has been borrowed by 2 people so far. No Virtual Console titles have merited my hard heard Nintendo points. Super Smash Bros Brawl's arrival, despite delayed, is perfectly timed. I have put in at least 20 hours so far, both solo and in hilarious multiplayer matches. No other game in memory other than Rock Band can bring out such utter joy and glee. The controls are fully customizable, and everything runs much closer to the N64 original over the GameCube speed fest (which I popped back in this afternoon for comparison). I absolutely hate playing as some characters (Donkey Kong, Ganondorf, and yes, Mario) but have found perfect balance with Link, Pit and Meta Knight (fallen out of love with Samus for the moment). Only negative? A week in and I still cannot play online against strangers. Quick message to Nintendo: stop being so freaking stupid about online. Oh, and Mario Kart Wii comes out in like a month.... yay? Yeah, didn't think so.

Paramore: Hey, so, good news and bad news! Paramore has added one of their songs to Rock Band for the bargain price of 80 points ($1 to us normal folk). Bad news? It wasn't Misery Business. Crushcrushcrush would be the song. While still a great song, when I read Paramore as one of the bands for the week, my heart skipped a beat thinking the next words would be Misery Business. Clearly, not the case. Misery Business would be one of the greatest songs to have in Rock Band. Everyone cross their fingers, mkay?

Lewis Black: My favorite comedian's new TV show premiered this week, and it isn't half bad! Root of all Evil pits 2 pop-culture items against each other, with 2 comics arguing for why their topic is the true root of all evil, with Lewis Black being the final judge. Only complaint? Not enough Black! He opens and closes the show, and quips here and there, but this is a show WRITTEN and CREATED by Black, not starring him. While his writing is one of the things that makes him so great, I want to see more of the man doing his thing, and less of the actor.

Serenity: Wuzzat? The Angel: After the Fall and Buffy: Season 8 comics are doing so well that Joss is going back to do more Firefly/Serenity comics too? Ya heard that right. And the first issue came out on Wednesday. And is it as good as the aforementioned amazing comic comebacks? No, actually. A tad disappointing.... not bad by any standards, but the show/movie has lost something in the translation to the comic world, something both Buffy and Angel have done quite well. I will wait until all 3 issues are released before making any final judgments, but so far, a comic about 9 characters (10, including Serenity herself) needs more time to marinate. The previously released Those Left Behind was a great example of how to do it, so let us hope the next 2 issues are worthy of the Whedonverse.

Top Chef: Hey, do you like reality shows? Me neither! But I love Top Chef. And what's that, Top Chef, season 4 is back only 4 months after the last seasons finale? Isn't that great? Well? Isn't it? Yeah, not TOO psyched either. Need some breathing room sometimes between shows... but, proved me wrong season 4 has! A good number of interesting characters are already showing their true colors, and I will make my calls now that Richard, Stephanie, Andrew, Dale, and Mark will be top contenders. Sorry other ladies, none of you have stood out quite yet like the last 3 years. Early call overall, Richard for the win. And no, having 2 of the women being in a relationship is not an advantage, it will be harder for them both, having to decide whether or not to help each other or look out for #1. So far so good, despite my early attitude about the show coming back on WAY too soon again.

Stand In The Place Where You Live...

Living in Las Vegas is unlike living in any other place I have ever lived, or even visited. For me specifically, I live pretty far away from any major landmarks, in the far southwest of the valley. And yes, Vegas is a valley. The Strip is in the middle of the big square, and I live in the bottom left hand corner, quite literally in the middle of the desert. I see coyotes at least once a week, and I am surrounded by mountains on 3 sides (4 if you count the entrance to my neighborhood) and the sidewalks are covered in tumbleweeds. When you get off the exit from the highway to get to my house, you pass several big brown signs indicating you are driving to Death Valley.

Sometimes, I see something here that truly sets it apart from the rest of the world. Driving to work this morning, I witnessed an amazing sunrise coming over the mountains to the south east. The picture below, taken by my passenger on a cell phone camera, cannot do justice to the majesty I witnessed. Just thought this was something cool and unique, and wanted to share it.

Click to embiggen

No Doubt.... ABOUT MY SKEELS YALL!!

I woke up today with the idea of writing a lil something for the site here, and one topic that has been on my mind is the utter lack of any Guitar Hero downloadable content. Yes, we got a free Dream On (100% on the first try on Medium so easy..... and boring....) and the Foo Fighters pack near launch was the rockingest. But every other song or pack that comes out is just plain disappointing. Low and behold to my surprise, but out of freakin nowhere, one of my top 5 favorite bands puts out a 3 pack for Guitar Hero 3: No Doubt!



What songs did we get for our 500 points ($6.25)? Don't Speak, Excuse Me Mr. and SUNDAY MORNING! For those who know nothing about music and hate their ears being happy, all 3 songs are from the CLASSIC 1995 Tragic Kingdom album, with Sunday Morning being one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time. Just want to point out the awesome coincidence that Tragic Kingdom knocked Bush's Razorblade Suitcase (anyone else remember Swallowed?) out of the top spot on the charts, and 13 years later we have Gwen and Gavin happily married with family :)

So how do the songs play? Here are my thoughts on the songs on Medium:
Excuse Me Mr: Most challenging and great beat. One of those songs that will challenge new people, but feel very fulfilling to long time players. This is one of those songs that when you play it, you forget you don't actually have a real guitar in your hands.
Don't Speak: Too easy on Medium, with the solo sucking because you only play 1/3 of the notes. Very Guitar Her 2 of them.... I will try again on Hard tonight and update my opinion.
Sunday Morning: ROCKIN! I got 100% on my first play through. It wasn't too hard or too easy. Yes, I am biased as this is one of my absolute favorite songs, so I am not the best judge here. It is like asking me if I liked that last interview with Joss Whedon: no matter what happens, I will love it.

That is all for now. Check back tonight or tomorrow as I will just add my opinions on the songs on Hard at the bottom of this post. Oh, and the Guitar Hero Aerosmith announcement? I am TRYING to reserve judgment until I see the song list, but I am getting familiar Rock the 80s suck waves from that one...

UPDATE: Don't Speak is not that bad on Hard, quite a bit of fun. Excuse Me Mr is very difficult, and Sunday Morning is still the awesomenest.

image courtesy Wikipedia

DANGER DANGER!

Be weary young friends! A threat is upon us like none other before it! Coming this leap year day of the 29th of the month of February (Feb-ROO-ary) comes a film so packed full of sexy, it may just make your head explode. Natalie Portman. Scarlett Johansson. Eric Bana. All... in Victorian garb.

MAY YOUR LIBIDOS TAKE WARNING AT THIS CLEAR ATTEMPT TO MAKE ALL OF THE WORLDS POPULATION MATE AT ONE TIME THEREBY DOUBLING THE POPULATION IN AN ATTEMPT TO END THE WORLD!!!!!! Ok, so not double, just like.... there will be like 50% more people. More like 37% counting children and the elderly who cannot mate... BUT STILL THE THREAT IS A GREAT ONE!

Shield thine virgin eyes and tie down your young sexy daughters... yeah... tie em down good... need a hand with that rope? Yeah, she likes it... I mean... wait... LOCK UP YOUR LOVERS FOR THE THREAT OF THIS AMOUNT OF SEXY IN ONE FILM WILL BE TOO MUCH FOR YOUR CROTCHES TO HANDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Other Boleyn Girl draws closer.....



Image courtesy IMDB

You say "tomato", I say "feb-roo-ary"...

Other than the occasional Rock Band break, I haven't been able to get much gaming in at all for nearly a month now. After nearly 200 hours on the job, and a few thousand miles of traveling, I am finally ready to get back into the swing of things and start having some fun again. First, it is time for me to look back on my most recent trip...

Vegas vs. Atlantic City, NJ: You decide...

Click on either picture to embiggen. That is AC on the top and Vegas on the bottom for the hopelessly ignorant. Also, the Vegas picture was taken by a very talented photographer at my boss's place a few months back.

Creepy: Atlantic City has/was long been the home of Miss America and all things related to this wacky little freak show. My hotel was the quasi Miss America museum, and the presence of the show permeated everywhere. This is what was across the wall from my bed in my hotel room in Atlantic City:

CLICK PICTURE TO EMBIGGEN

Some of you have already seen this picture, and I will now post your thoughts on it:
-"I agree, rather strange. But now I know what Miss America from the year of my birth looks like. But they should provide better material for when you're alone in the hotel room... uhhh - never mind."
-"They'll be WATCHING your every move... but hey, you've finally got a captive audience to practice your jokes on!!"
-"haha *sings* here she is, miss americaaaaaaa!!! sucks to be you LOL ^_^ "
-"Wow. The ghost of Miss America's past watching over you? I'd be scared to go to sleep."

F%&k you all.

Yummy: While back in the Delaware Valley (PA+NJ+DE), I managed to pick up a "few" Tasty Kakes. In Philadelphia, a "few" equals $44.

CLICK PICTURE TO EMBIGGEN

A little history about Tasty Kakes for those who aren't familiar. Tasty Kakes were first made in 1914 in Philadelphia. They were created when the Super Devil, Bender from Futurama, Chuck Norris, and Super Saiyajin Goku high-fived each other in a bakery owned by the Mythbusters. The original product looked less than appetizing, so Lucy Pinder, Kelly Brook, and Scarlett Johansson made out in front of the delicious pastries and they morphed into their current beautifully chocolate form. You can FINALLY buy them in bulk online, bulk being the operative. The majority of people that I had try them for the first time loved them greatly, with only one person just thinking they were just "ok." She and I are no longer friends.

Ghost Watches are cooler: I picked up Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for my poor neglected DS for my many travels the past month. So far I am pleasantly surprised, despite the mad amounts of adulation it has received. I didn't think I would like the touch aspect, but it works very well, and I now find myself with my foot in my mouth... ya know, again. I only have 2 complaints so far, and that is the constant need to return to that first temple and go through the entire thing again and again with a time limit, and the inability to quickly swap items. Also, the roll mechanic doesn't seem to work that well. Overall, more fun than I had with Wind Waker at first thanks to the new draw-to-sail mechanic, but it doesn't have the same magic and appeal, and I think I am already halfway through at about 8 hours of play, with 3/4 of the map uncovered.

Found Iliad: I have decided that the next game I am buying will be Lost Odyssey for the 360, which comes out this week. Every review and preview I have read has 1 main complaint, and that is that it is too "old school" or too "late 90s" for a JRPG. Well guess what? That is EXACTLY what I want. I am skipping Mass Effect and Blue Dragon (and Xenosaga 3 and Rogue Galaxy... geez I am behind...) in favor of Lost Odyssey for the time being. Hopefully it will be the right choice for my preferences. I will let you know how that turns out.

That be all for now. I will update again in another 3 weeks or something....