Mini-Reviews 21

It's still Friday!!


The Simpsons Movie-- Meh. Introducing an actual plotline, drama, and romance doesn't work completely with The Simpsons. Sometimes it really does. For instance, the tape that Marge leaves Homer is honestly heartbreaking. But the first half of the film is boring, with the last 20 or 30 minutes being the only thing exciting or at all interesting. And, surprisingly, not as funny as I expected. Funniest moment, though, is when the polar bear kicks the fox. XD

Holy Hell, I did something

So, I've been making a lot of entries lately, but, son of a bitch, I did stuff today.

And by stuff, I mean I was bombin' around a variety of shopping centers with some friends.

We went all over the place: Heroes Your Mom Threw Out [comic book shop, which was fuckin' closed!], Rite Aid, Walgreens, Toys 'R' Us, the Arnot Shopping Mall [FYE, GameStop, a couch and recliner store, Waldenbooks, Spencer's, a pet store, Victoria's Secret, JoAnn Fabrics], Dix Sporting Goods, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, K-Mart... I think that's every place we went.

Not really any amazing stories from the day that I can think of... I know there are some, I'm just drawing a complete blank. Which is good, because in truth there are probably so many amusing tidbits that I'd have way too much typing to do. We did, however, get lost on the way to the comic shop. Only because they had moved their place of business and left a note on the door with the address. Finding it was sooo much fun. XD

But, yeah, I had quite the adventurous, entertaining day. (^_^) Unfortunately, I think I missed my chance for an awesome phone call. :( Bummer of a way to end the day.

Bathroom Exploits

So, spent the majority of today helping [read, mostly watching and learning while helping where I could] Tim [the maintenance guy] work on the bathroom floor some more. Replaced all the floorboards that needed replacing, put down floor leveler, and started putting down the tile, which I think looks really nice by the by. Got more than half of it down, so almost done. Also, lifted the corner of the tub so that it doesn't leak over the edge anymore. Woot! So, the problem won't repeat itself any time soon hopefully.

Unfortunately, the toilet's leaking now and needs a new hose. At least it's the clean water running into the tank that's leaking and not sewage. Whew. But, not a huge problem, we've just had to turn the tank on to fill and flush then back off again. Not a big deal, had to do that for years at the old house, haha.

But! The current problems are almost fixed! I'm sure more will go wrong. The lighting fixture worries me, but, we'll see, we'll see.

I Suck (Not A Gay Topic)

Yeah, I stole it from you, G. What're you gonna do about it? =P

So, I've fallen into a sedentary lifestyle. Hell, falling is too active a word, allow me to rephrase: I've slowly slipped, purely through gravitational pull and no exertion on my part, into a sedentary lifestyle. I've just stopped working on damn near anything: vids, music, reviews, anything. The only thing I still maintain is the weekly mini-reviews, and that really is the least I could do; it requires nigh no effort. The only thing I do is play vidgames, watch movies, and listen to music.

My hopes are, though, that now I'll shake that off and get back to work on something. I've been sitting on this spoken word album for one excuse or another, the latest is that I have no artwork involved whatsoever, but fuck it, I'll just record it, zip it, and put it up for all five of the people who'll listen to it. I've got vids I want to get done [I'm sorry to everyone who've been waiting on me for vids, Shep, brody, I still want to do that vid with you Franny, I promise!], and some other ideas I don't want to get into in case they fall through for whatever reason.

But, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if any of this'll actually happen. The biggest reason for my sudden apathy and lack of activity is a direct result of my severe lack of motivation. It's really one of the few major problems I have in life, I just don't see a reason to do things. For instance, why did I drop out of high school? Well... actually, because I had just stopped going so it only made sense to get the paperwork out of the way and make it official. But I stopped showing up in the first place because I just didn't see the point and couldn't find a good enough reason for me to go. The only reason I kept going as long as I did was because of my girlfriend at the time and the friends I had. But after breaking up with the girlfriend and the majority of my friends stopped wanting to spend time with me, I had no reason to go anymore.

Or take my inability to gain employment. I'm really not that upset about it. What's the point? Yeah, I'd like to have a paycheck, but, not terribly. I'd just buy vidgames and movies, after all. Sure, I could save up and get an apartment, get out on my own. But to what avail? So that I have someplace to sit by myself and watch movies and play vidgames when I'm not working? I don't see people for days as it is, I really don't think that would change if I had a different place of residence. I just play vidgames and watch movies alone, unless I see someone on Xbox Live, and then I'll play a vidgame with them, but still ostensibly alone. I can do that now, and without having to deal with the general public. So why bother getting a job and moving out to do the same things I do now?

There are numerous examples of my apathy and... what's an antonym for motivation? I can't think of one... anyway, there are many examples, but I think you see my point. If I can find no good reason to do something, I find it very difficult to motivate myself, even if I know I should. If I don't know why I should... *shrugs*

So, what was I saying? I think I got distracted, this whole entry is kind of train-of-thought writing that I'm not even bothering to reread... oh, right! Getting around to working on things, music, vids, life. I'm not sure if I'll ever actually do these things as it's becoming increasingly difficult to find reasons for motivation. But I hope I do, maybe starting tomorrow, in fact.

Okay, that's enough. I hope this entry makes sense to someone and isn't too much of a jumbled mess. XD

Mini-Reviews 20

The Basketball Diaries-- This film has been on my list of movies to see for, like, ten years now. Good movie, even though it feels a little rushed. DiCaprio's performance is great, and it was interesting seeing a younger Mark Wahlberg.


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginnings-- If you've seen the 2004 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and enjoyed it, here's more of the same, so enjoy. If you didn't, you won't dig this one, either. Has some interesting little explanations that tie into the remake as well. If you haven't seen either of these and you decide to watch this one, I hope you like blood, gore, and screams.

Mirror's Edge

Shep wanted to know about Mirror's Edge, so, here we go.

IIIII like it a lot. It's far from perfect, but, I still had a lot of fun with it. It's a refreshing change from all the FPS games.

It's crazy short though. I beat it twice in two days, once on Normal last night and I beat it a little while ago on Hard. The Story Mode, anyway, the Time Trials and Speedruns are a whole other matter entirely.

Some issues with it, though. For one thing, the cutscenes look like butt. I just don't dig the style of animation, it looks cheap and poorly-made, I don't care if it's supposed to be stylized. It looks great when it's still, but as soon as it animated, ew. Looks like one of those crappy cartoons on Adult Swim.

In addition, the controls sometimes just don't work. There's a few instances where you will not be able to figure out why Faith isn't grabbing the fucking ledge. Specific moments where she'll only do what she's supposed to three or four times out of ten. And you won't even know why you can't make it, it just seems random. But there're just a few instances of that, so it's not a huge deal, just worth mentioning.

A couple minor issues: all the white can sometimes blur together and make distinguishing things difficult. That may be just on SDTV's, though, I imagine it's clearer in high definition. And, of course, there are some instances of cheap deaths, but, what platforming game doesn't have those? It's certainly not rampant, just mildly annoying.

Oh, I almost forgot my biggest problem! The load times. When you first start up a level, I don't mind a long load time. And the load time for your last checkpoint after a death is remarkably short, usually. But each chapter has at least two, I think, moments where the game stops and it reads "Loading Level" at the bottom left of the screen. And it'll sit there for a good 10-30 seconds. It's annoying as hell. Maybe this isn't such an issue with the PS3, and won't be for the PC, I don't know. But it's certainly present for the 360 version.

Some good things? The score, I like the music a lot. The voice-acting's good, as well, though the story itself is kind of meh. Not bad, just unsurprising. The gameplay itself is terribly fun, the parkour aspects of it especially, and the gunplay isn't bad. Nothing really broken or poorly-implemented that I found in my two playthroughs.

And there you are, some of my quick thoughts on Mirror's Edge. Final summation: if you have a PS3 or 360, play this game. If you've got a PC, give it a little time, it'll be out in about a month.

I need to stop being gone all day.

So, hey, another long day wherein I wasn't at the computer much. I spent most of the morning clearing out some of the shit off of my computer because I desperately needed more space [which I'll get into later] and then ran the defrag for the main HDD. Whee, so, that kept me from the computer most of the day. Then, I was helping [mostly watching] Tim, the maintenance guy, fix our bathroom floor [which I'll also get into later in this since, like, two of you even know what the fuck I'm talking about XD].

And! I got Mirror's Edge today, squee! (^______^) So terribly excited, and really, really hoping it doesn't turn out to be an awful game. Haven't been able to get into it, being busy all day and such, and I'm putting it off for tonight because I want to try and get to bed early. But, more importantly, I'd much rather talk with what few friends are still online by this point in the day, and if I start playing my new game I'll become engrossed and start unintentionally ignoring them. Not good. But tomorrow, I'm playing the shit out of that game, let me tell you.

So, the bathroom floor. While we were looking over the new place before moving in, the first thing I noticed was that the floor in the bathroom was damaged as hell from water. The toilet was sinking into the floor on the right side and was leaning far enough that it made the tank drain drip by drop and refill itself repeatedly all day long. No fun. Long story short [too late], the front end of the tub, the end with the faucets, had settled into the floor and tilted the wrong way so that instead of the water running to the corner of the tub where it can sit and drain back into the tub and not cause problems it was running to the other edge out on to the floor and soaking into the floor. This probably would not have been such a big deal, but, instead of plywood the floor had been cheaply redone at some point and they used OSB [Sterling board] which acts like a sponge as soon as it gets wet, apparently. So, instead of the water drying up, it was trapped in the OSB and just causing as much water damage as it could. But, anyway, replaced the floor where it was damaged, and now my toilet is level! And, we replaced the toilet seat, which bit me a couple times, so, yeah! No more bitey toilet seat!

Okay, the space issue on my computer is next. As I was looking through my music files today, deciding what could go and what I really didn't want to ever delete,I came to the realization that my packrat tendencies extend to the internet. Specifically when it comes to downloading music. It's far too easy to find and download an entire discography of a band via torrents. XD So, I'd hear a song I like, look 'em up, then download their entire discography and keep it around. Maybe listen to it once. As you can imagine, it put quite a strain, especially since this computer's shit and does not have very large HDDs. A short explanation for that one.

So, to conclude this, I'm going to try and post here more often and treat it like an actual blog. The reason I don't is because I either can't remember all that happened by the end of a day, don't think it's really worth typing about, or don't have anything worth saying. So, no way in hell is it ever going to be a day-by-day rundown of everything I do, but, I'll try to post the more worthwhile or interesting things instead of never getting around to it. Like the bathroom floor thing, I could have posted about that weeks ago, just, didn't feel like it. Well, no more of that!

Mini-Reviews 19

Meatballs-- 1979 summer camp movie with Bill Murray. That's right, a 30-year-old film. Anyway, it's not that great, heh. Some funny moments, but that's about it. It's just not a well-made, cohesive film.

Y'know what I miss?

Having friends to hang out with. Those were pretty good times, pretty good times.

Mini-Reviews 18

Blood and Chocolate-- In the beginning it's ridiculous and somewhat pretentious. It gets better, though, pretty quickly. Around the time Aiden and Vivian are falling in love. And remains good for the rest of the film. So, over-all, it's pretty good, but if you're not a fan of these kind o' movies already, don't expect to have your mind changed by this film.

Mini-Reviews 17

Fuck me, it's Friday, whoops!

Not only Friday? It's the 28th? Of November? Of 2008? Seriously? Jesus, time needs to slow down.


Wall-E-- Ohhhh, I love this movie now. (^_^) It's the sweetest, most adorable story of two robots in love. <3<3<3

Whew

So, as of yesterday, I'm moved into the new place. I don't have all of my stuff just yet, but, enough to live with and keep myself entertained, so, good enough, eh? The rest of the stuff, as well as the rest of the family and their stuff, will be coming on Tuesday, so, whee, but for the time being, I'm enjoying having the place to myself. (^_^)

By the by, I posted a new vid in response to Shep on YouTube, check it out.

P.S., anyone who had the old address and landline number and wants the new information, let me know.

Mini-Reviews 17

Hellboy II: The Golden Army-- One question. Why do they continue to send normal humans along with Hellboy and his crew? XD Great film.


Tropic Thunder-- I've heard mixed reviews of this film, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But, I thought it was pretty good. Some great laughs, especially Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr., and even some good action moments. The satire of pop culture was hilarious and terribly true. It had its moments where it was boring or nonsensical, sure, but as a whole I liked the film.

A little more about Gears of War 2

And it's in vid format.

Also, I make mention of the New Xbox Experience that comes out tomorrow.

Gears of War 2 Review (Because I was told to do it)

I was considering not doing a review for Gears 2, but, who am I to not do whatever a lovely lass asks of me? (^_^) So, I've decided to do a written review for Gears of War 2, as opposed to a video review, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I've got enough vids planned that I still have not done. Secondly, I still don't have a way of capturing video for doing these reviews and I can not believe that people want to sit and watch me blather on about a game without seeing even a second of gameplay footage, so, I'll just do a written review and hope people are okay with reading it, haha. This is very long, and I've probably forgotten to mention something despite reading over it a couple times to double check. And away we go.


---Story
It's been six months since the Lightmass Bomb was set off underground and the Locust Horde have returned with a vengeance. Somehow they've found a way to sink entire cities and the last bastion for human civilization, Jacinto, is under threat. In the hopes of saving their city, the COG is striking back at the heart by sending soldiers directly underground to fight back against the Horde.

The writing still takes a back seat to the gameplay, much like with the first Gears of War, but it's clearly stronger this time around. Which I feel is attributable to the inclusion of Joshua Ortega in the writing process. While still weak in certain aspects, particularly with some lines of dialogue, it has one of the most emotional, heart-breaking scenes I've seen in a vidgame thus far. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but the people who've played the game know what I'm talking about.

But let's be honest with ourselves, the majority of people who play a Gears game don't come to it for the story and I don't think it's really envisioned by the people working on it as a story-driven game, so we'll move on.


---Controls & Gameplay
If you've played Gears 1, you've got the controls for Gears 2 down already. For the sake of the review, though, I'll run through the controls.

Right trigger fires your weapon
Left trigger allows you to aim your weapon.
Right button reloads.
Left button shows your Tac/Com to check position and status of your team and your current

objectives.
Left stick controls your movement.
Right stick controls the camera.
D-pad chooses your weapons.
Pressing A puts you into cover or makes you dive in the direction indicated by the left stick. Holding A makes you roadie run. Pressing A near a downed enemy will pick them up as a meatshield.
B melees, revs the chainsaw if held while the Lancer is equipped, or sticks grenades to walls or people if grenades are equipped. Pressing B near a downed enemy while a special execution weapon is equipped with perform a specific execution.
X is your general interaction button: grabbing ammo and guns, kicking open doors, pressing buttons, etc. Pressing X near a downed enemy with curb stomp them.
Y shows you points of interest, which are generally prompted on the bottom of the screen anyway. Pressing Y near a downed enemy will perform a three-punch beatdown, unless a special execution weapon is equipped.
Start brings up the options menu.
Back skips cutscenes and shows the Leaderboard during multiplayer matches.

First of all, let's get the minor changes out of the way first. The roadie run is a bit slower, the clip sizes are different, smoke grenades now stun nearby enemies when they detonate, and the cover mechanic is improved slightly. I still have the occasional issue where it won't let me into cover when someone else is already attached to it or it'll drag me across to cover I'm not even near when what I wanted to do was dodge aside, but these things don't happen as often. Other than that, it works much the same, which is to say, great.

But, there have been several new weapons added, including the Scorcher flamethrower and mortars, as well as an Ink grenade that expels a cloud of poison. Speaking of grenades, there's also a new way to deploy grenades as proximity mines. Simply meleeing a wall while you have the grenade equipped will accomplish this phenomenally useful feat.

And let's not forget the new executions. No longer is it the same old curb stomp with X if you want to really take out an enemy. Now there are 11 different executions with a variety of weapons. For instance, pressing Y while you have the Torque Bow equipped will have your character place the opponents neck against the Torque Bow blade then kick the back of his head while simultaneously pulling back on the Bow, effectively decapitating your enemy. It is delightfully violent.

Yet another new thing added to the gameplay are several new enemies, such as the Grinder, which is a huge Locust walking around with a Mulcher, and the Mauler, which is another huge Locust, but with a large shield that will deflect the majority of your shots and a morningstar with quite the reach. It's not all large Locust, though, there has been a much smaller, though no less deadly, enemy added to the roster. That's the Ticker, which is a living land mine that will race at you then explode.

And finally, there are several vehicles portions of the game where you get to drive a Centaur (which is a COG tank), a Reaver, and even a Brumak.


---Graphics
The graphics are improved, though to my unprofessional eye it doesn't appear to be by much. But, it is there... seriously, I'm not the guy to ever ask about graphics. >_> I know whether it looks good or does not look good, and that's as much as I know. There is an issue, though, where sometimes the textures take a few extra seconds to load, and you see a very smooth, glass-like world, but that's mostly amusing. XD

One thing of note as far as the graphics is the completely altered character model of Anya. Her hair color, facial shape, body shape, it's all different, which took some getting used to for me, even though you only see her once in the first Gears. And I wish someone could explain to me why they decided to make the change.


---Music & Sound
The sound work is really, really good. Every bone-snapping, blood-splattering, body-mutilating noise is done to perfection. One complaint, though. When you're walking through the remains of a mutilated enemy, it's unnecessarily noisy. Like, I may kick aside a chunk of meat and it'll sound like I jumped directly on top of a pile of raw meat, it's ridiculous and annoys the hell out of me to the point where I will actively try to avoid walking over it.

The voice-acting is superb, despite some dodgy writing for the dialogue in a few places. And with the story being what it is, it's nice to hear a better range of emotions from the characters, not just "GRRR, KILL 'EM ALL! I'M ANGRY! I SHOOT TESTOSTERONE DIRECTLY INTO MY TESTICLES THREE TIMES A DAY; BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER, BITCHES!"

I'm also pleased to hear the score play a better range, as well. The score was nice in Gears 1, don't get me wrong. It enhanced the experience, or at the very least did not detract from it. But in Gears 2 I feel it's more memorable, more powerful, and plays a larger part in conveying the emotions played in the voices of the actors. As an aside, if you purchase the Limited Edition, there are parts of the score you can listen to included on the Bonus DVD, it's quite a nice feature.


---Multiplayer & Replayability
Ohhh, the multiplayer for a Gears game. Some people may recall that I dislike the competitive multiplayer for Gears of War, so if you love it and you're gonna get upset 'cause I'm gonna bash it, skip on down, brother or sister. The weapons are ridiculous, I fucking hate the shotgun and often enough refer to it as "Gears of Shotgun" while I'm playing the competitive multiplayer. Also, the way in which the lobby was set up annoyed the piss out of me. I couldn't just invite a friend to play a match with me, we had to try to find each other. "Look for this game type on this map", and gods help you if your rankings were too different, you'd never find each other. Then there was the issue with people coming in and insisting on being on the hosts team because they believe there's some host advantage, which there isn't, so you'd generally not even be able to join your friend's team.

Thankfully, half of that has been changed. The shotgun is still ever-present and I hate it, not to mention the Hammer of Dawn, seriously? But, the lobby has been drastically altered, thankfully. You enter the multiplayer lobby, choose your playlist (which I'll get to in a minute), and then start searching for a team or invite a friend or four then start searching for a team. Either way, you'll find any random players you need to fill your team of five, then start searching for another team to play against. Squee! No waiting and hoping for enough people to join the room so the host can start it!

However, you can not search within a specific gametype to play. Instead, you choose a playlist, which has at least three gametypes to choose from. Two are chosen at random, and then the 10 people present vote on what gametype they'd like to play. If there's a tie vote, one of the remaining gametypes in the list is chosen instead. The only exception to this is Wingman, which as its own playlist. And the same goes for the maps, two are randomly chosen and then voted on, if there's a tie, one of the remaining maps is chosen at random.

To finish up with the competitive multiplayer, there are two new gametypes: Wingman and Submission, a.k.a., Meatflag.

Wingman is basically a clusterfuck. There are five teams of two all gunning for each other, and with the limited spawnpoints on the maps, there is always someone not far from you as soon as you spawn. And hiding will do you know good, you pansies! You don't win merely by surviving, it's the first team to 15 points, and it's one point per kill with a bonus point if your team survives the round. So, you can theoretically survive every round and still lose the match. Personally, I don't like this gametype at all, but it is exactly as it was described and intended to be, so well done, Epic Games.

Submission, on the other hand, I do enjoy. It's your basic capture the flag with a twist: the flag fights back with a shotgun. And talks shit constantly. XD The meatflag's always terribly amusing to listen to. And that's it. Down the meatflag, pick the meatflag up, get him to the capture point and remain in the ring with him a few seconds to capture him.

Moving on to the cooperative multiplayer, which I enjoy far more. The campaign can, of course, be played entirely in co-op and is much, much better when played with a friend, either locally or over Xbox Live.

The new addition to the cooperative multiplayer, however, is the Horde mode. It's you and up to four of your friends against 50 waves of the Locust. Waves 1-10 feature increasingly difficult Locust, and after every tenth level one of three stat multipliers for the Locust, Accuracy, Health, and damage, is increased and the waves restart with the weakest Locust again. It's an extremely addictive mode to play, and a lot of fun to play with your friends.

Whew, this is a hella long review. Okay, so, replayability. I'd say it's extremely high. Horde is just wicked fun, so I imagine people will be playing that again and again. And if Achievements are important to you, you're gonna need 100,000 kills over all the different modes of gameplay, including the campaign, to get Seriously 2.0. So, you'll have to play the game a lot to get that, haha, I got the game the morning it came out and I haven't even reached 5,000 yet.


---Negatives
There's not much negative about this game for me, and certainly nothing I haven't already mentioned, but, I'll reiterate. Though I like it better, the competitive multiplayer is still very frustrating and annoying and there are a few dodgy lines of dialogue, as far as the writing is concerned. It's still a very short game, but it is longer than the first game. Also, it's not really a negative, but certainly not a positive, but where in the hell did the Berserkers go? They're only passingly mentioned with one of the Collectibles and that is all. Strange. Oh, only other thing that's kind of a letdown is the end. It lacks the punch and sense of accomplishment that the fight with General Raam had in the first Gears. It kind o' just... ends.


---Positives
Everything else! I love that there's more of a real story present and the game's just fun as hell to play. And there's a whole slew of additions to the game that make it even better than the first, from weapons to gametypes to enemies. Plus, I'll never get tired of hearing Dom say "Runnin' away won't help! I'll just shoot you in your asses!"


---Final summation
Purchase this game. Unless you don't like games with a lot of blood and violence. If that's the case, you should definitely pass on this one. >_> Or buy it and turn off all the gore and foul language in the options!

Mini-Reviews 16

Superhero Movie-- Everyone knows that the Movie movies are getting old. They've been getting more and more boring with just a few really funny jokes sprinkled amongst bad jokes and unfunny randomness. This is much the same. A lot of stupid jokes, some hilarious ones, and a basic storyline to tie it all together. Certainly worth viewing once, to at least see the good jokes. And I like this one better than some of the others simply because of the superhero theme. But the formulas not getting any better, really.

If only I were more useful.

I wish I could take all the sorrow and frustration of the people I love away.

At the very least, help them bear the weight.

Mini-Reviews 15

So, it's Sunday afternoon. I'm supposed to post these on Fridays. Whoops. >_< I've got excuses, though! Who's interested in knowing what they are? Two things, I've been crazy-sick since Wednesday evening and Gears of War 2 came out on Friday, which I purchased that morning. And then had my share of issues with, but, that'll be for another blog another time.

Desert Heat-- It's a bit of an older film, released in 1999. And this movie is fantastic. It's just so ridiculous. The whole town is full of ludicrous characters, like the English-accentedPat Morita, and even Van Damme himself is utterly ridiculous. It's an entertaining and extremely amusing hour and a half, I assure you.

First and last time

So, I really don't think I can handle voting and Presidential campaigns.

I tried it this year, albeit I didn't follow closely. And I got very wrapped up in who I want to be President. Or, more appropriately, who I don't want to be President.

But now, if any of my friends disagree with me, anyone whom I care for a great deal, I get a sick, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. And, I'm not proud to say, I immediately start to think less of them. (-_-) Believe me, I know. I don't want to, but I can't help it, and I feel like a big fat jerk for it. When someone whom I love disagrees with something I'm so fervent about, it makes me go "How are we friends? How long can we possibly remain friends?" Even friends I've had for years and years!

So, I can't do this again, sorry democratic process, but you cause me too much distress. You make me physically ill and you make me question my relationships. I can't deal with it. Peace, I'm out!

It's been a couple weeks

There's a neeeew vid on YouTube. That is all.

Technically two, it seems

Hey, there's this great band called Function Creep, ya heard of 'em?

Well, Function Creep fuckin' rocks, so if you haven't heard it yet, go to the page and download the latest single, The Black Mercy. It even features yours truly on a track!

Seriously, go go give it a listen now. And then download all the other singles, they're amazing.

Mini-Reviews 14

The Incredible Hulk-- Good film, but could have been better, at least for me. Part of my love for the Hulk is the inner turmoil for both Bruce Banner and the Hulk, which is only really hinted at occasionally, or only once in the Hulk's case. I really liked teh way the opening is, though, showing a bit of backstory in a montage during the opening credits. Very cool.


The Strangers-- This film is very good at getting across the feeling of fright and suspense, in my opinion. Very creepy ambiance to the whole film. It's not gorey or anything. It's just... it's intense. It drags in a couple spots, but it's definitely worth seeing, especially since it's Halloween!

Mini-Reviews 13

Sorry to be posting it so late, but, I wanted to get the Saw V mini-review in since I went to see it today.



Bottoms Up-- Don't beat yourself up if you've never heard of this film. It's not that great. The beginning is, in fact, complete rubbish as far as I'm concerned. Bad cuts, some lackluster acting, strange plot points. There's some amusing dialogue, but, not much. It picks up as it goes along, though, if you're willing to sit through it, and by the end of the film it is mildly amusing, but it still felt like a waste of time once it was finished. There's funny bits, yes, but there's also a lot of unfunny extraneous stuff. Also, Paris Hilton can not act well. I know there are probably fans of her somewhere in the world, but, I've yet to see a decent performance, I'm sorry. Also, her hair looks like a bad wig in this film. Hell, maybe it is a badly done wig, I dunno.


Saw V-- Disappointing. I mean, I'm not terribly surprised. I wasn't expecting much of this movie. Basically, the movie is an hour and forty minutes of exposition and explanation with some gore and traps thrown just so that there's some of that in there. Don't get me wrong, the stuff presented is interesting, and ties the movies altogether even more, but, still not much of a movie there. Feels like a long in-between.

Yummy.

New song alert! Did a new track for Halloween with Artificial Angel called "Flesh". Right click and save as, y'all, and enjoy it. (^_^) And be sure to check out the music on his MySpace.

Artificial Angel - Flesh (Ft. Sixty X Celph)

If you really don't want to download it, I suppose you can give it a listen on the MySpace player instead.

Mini-Reviews 12

Whoops, it's technically Saturday now.



The Happening-- I love M. Night Shyamalan's films, the ones I've seen. Well shot, great stories, interesting characters. The problem is that he's always expected to have some great twist. That's always the complaint I hear most, "The ending sucked" or "It was a weak twist". And there's not really a twist at all. The idea, what's behind "the happening", is presented early on. The problem is that while the idea itself is terrifying, it's ridiculous watching people run away from wind in a field of grass. This probably would have worked better as a novel, something not so visual. But, I enjoyed it. Mark Wahlberg's good stuff, though to be honest I wouldn't consider this anywhere near his best work. Anyway, I think I spotted Brian O'Halloran drivin' the red jeep, am I wrong?


Hard Candy-- Great movie, I've really grown to love Ellen Page since watching Juno, she's an awesome actress. It's an interesting little thriller sort o' mystery film about a 14-year-old girl who flips the script on someone she believes to be a pedophile with some interesting twists along the way. Really good.


Iron Man-- ... seriously, what do you want to hear from me? It's a good film, see it! Most of the changes made from the original material are understandable, although there were some that made no sense to me, but, somehow the movie's good enough that I forgave them. If you're like me and were waiting for it to release and be available for rent, well, see it!

Mmmm, Hard Candy

Yaaay, the DVD mein chickadee sent me has arrived! Now I can watch Hard Candy! And of course I'll let you all know how it is come Friday. (^_^)

Yaay!

Hey, new vids are cool, right?

Yaay, I'm back on the YouTube scene!

Bad news and good news!

The bad news is I didn't watch any new movies again this week, so, no mini-reviews again this week, because I suck. More bad news, I still don't have my new mic.

Good news! Spliced together the wires of my old mic, so, there'll be new vids! Some of the stuff to look forward to: Pros and cons of video game consoles, a movie review for Hatchet, a response to Shep's Top Comic Book Movies vid from awhile back.

More good news, sometime over the next week we'll be shooting a new vid for Tebo Productions, finally. And this one may actually get finished since we mainly have to rely on only each other! (^_^) And I don't foresee either myself or Tebo bailing out on a new Tebo Productions vid, haha.

Whee

I passed my GED exams.

Mini-Reviews 11

I don't have a good excuse for not posting this until Sunday afternoon. I was out all Friday afternoon and a good part of the night, but, I could have posted it in the morning. Yesterday and today? Just forgot. >_<


The Forbidden Kingdom-- Let's be honest, anytime Jackie Chan breaks out the Drunken Boxing it's awesome. And I've been wanting a Jet Li/Jackie Chan film for as long as I've been watching the two stars. Add to this that I love the legend of the Monkey King and it may be that I had high expectations and hopes for this film. The action sequences are cool. The plot isn't terrific, but, it's serviceable for what it is. The characters are amusing, albeit a little childish. Most of the movie seems to be geared more towards kids, ten- or eleven-year-olds, rather than adults, actually. I'm not sure if that's how it was meant to be seen, but, viewed as such, I think it's pretty good. Fun little kung-fu movie for preteens, though I've never been particularly fond of wire-fu.


August-- I went into this knowing nothing except that it starred Josh Hartnett and was about a man's dot-com spiraling down. I think it's a terribly interesting look at the life of this fictional character at the moment, and it's well-acted with a wonderful cast of people. But... it's kind of boring. And it doesn't really have a resolution it kind o' just ends. Worth seeing once, I suppose, if you can find it cheap.


First Blood-- There's a reason it's a classic, people. Plus, I hate dickhead cops, so, the fact that that's whom Rambo is fuckin' with is great for me. I always thought it was a war movie, though, so it was a surprise when I learned otherwise. And the end is really good, excellent performance from Stallone, I loved it.

D'uh

So, I bought some new DVD's today. >_> Yeah, I know. I suck at saving money. XD Anyway, I was bombin' around Wal-Mart a bit and decided I'd see what was in the five dollar bin since it's been awhile since I bought a movie. And I found a few. (^_^)

I came across a legitimate copy of Stand By Me, which is nice because I have a burned copy a friend of mine gave me and I really, really wanted the real thing. And now I have it, squee! I also grabbed Uncle Buck and Meet Joe Black because they're great movies. And, finally, I picked up a copy of the Ultimate Edition of First Blood because I've been wanting to see this movie for a long time, even more so after seeing the recent Rambo. And now, I can! There's a nice complete collection I want that... I can't honestly remember who at the moment, but, someone out there has the one I want to get. Was it Shep? Gods, I wish I could remember right now. Anyway, I didn't mind shillin' five bucks to see the first one even though I hope to get that collection.

And that's enough rambling for now, I'm sore from volleyball, and I'm gonna go watch some more movies.

*ahem* ... >_>

Yeah, I didn't watch any new movies again this week. I didn't really watch anything, actually. Been playing F.E.A.R. Files, borrowin' it from my mate Tebo. There were two DVD's rented today, though, so I'll have something for next Friday!

Oh, as an aside, I'll know whether I passed the GED exams in 4-6 weeks, so, sometime around the 18th or 25th of October at the latest. Just in case anyone wanted to know.

As another aside, I may do a review on the Kerli album Love Is Dead, which I bought recently. Anyone interested?

Sorry

Didn't watch any new movies this week. I did watch Predator again, though, hadn't seen that in awhile... so, go watch that!

In case anyone's curious, had my first five hour session of GED tests. Another five hours tomorrow morning. And then I'll either have my GED or proof I'm a failure. Either way, I'll never have to do it again!

Mini-Reviews 10

Dan In Real Life-- Great movie. Funny, heart-breaking, and very touching. Fairly predictable, yes, but very well done anyway. It's exceptionally realistic, which I think is its greatest strength.


21-- Quick aside... near the end of the movie, doesn't Kevin Spacey look remarkably like Robert Downey, Jr.? Anyway, the beginning and end are pretty good, but the middle lulled for me. I just started to lose interest once they were in Vegas and Ben's character is starting to change. Luckily, the end picked it back up. I pretty much predicted the end of the film, but, I dunno if that was just me or because the film's predictable. It's hard for me to tell by this point. Anyway, to shorten this... eh, I guess it's wll enough, but, it wouldn't top a list of recommendations I'd make. Kind of unimpressive.

Mini-Reviews 09

Rambo-- Decent movie. Great action film. Light on the plot, but brutal. Very brutal, in fact, it's quite graphic with how the pillaging, rape, and murder taking place in the country. Be aware of that, going in.


Prom Night [1980]-- It's not bad. Slow in the beginning, not to mention that it makes very little sense, but, it does start to pick up. The ending has a decent twist, though. I guess it's supposed to be a slasher, but, there's not really much slashing going on in the film. So, with that in mind, the film's a typical early 80's thriller. With disco! If you dig that kind o' stuff, you've probably already seen it. If you don't, it's really not worth your time to see it now, 28 years later.


Prom Night [2008]-- This really has almost nothing to do with the 1980 film of the same name. Was this supposed to be a remake? There's the basic premise of people being murdered at prom, and that there are three women who are friends, and one woman who is at odds with the three. And that's where the similarities in story pretty much end. It's an okay film, straight-up slasher that tries to be a thriller by showing the violence off-camera, but, there's a cute as hell lead actress and enough plot to at least be legitimately called a film, which screams "slasher flick". I watched the theatrical cut, so, I dunno how gorey the unrated cut is. But this one leaves a lot to the imagination with the majority of the violence done off-camera. A slasher film without much slashing can get pretty boring. Hey, actually, that's one more thing it has in common with the 1980 film!

Holy eff, a new vid.

For realsy, yo. I wouldn't get too used to the idea of me doing more vids just yet, as I hate the way the mic on my webcam sounds. But I didn't want to wait a long time to do a vid response to Adam.

Mini-Reviews 08

Just a couple new movies this week.


The Invasion-- I liked the movie, all except for the editting decision where they show the before and after, cutting in between the two. It can be a little confusing, and I just don't think it was a good idea at all. It only happens three or four times, though. Unfortunately, Nicole Kidman kind o' looks like she's had a fair amount of plastic surgery. :( I could easily be wrong, but, it looks it to me. She's definitely had breast augmentation done. It's honestly kind of distracting [in its entirety, not just her boobs =P]. It's an all right movie, if you can deal with those two things, though.


Live Free or Die Hard-- Great action movie, fantastic cast. What more is there to be said?

Uh oh, here he comes...

So, I can't shake the feeling that most of my friends are avoiding me as of late. I dunno what it is, maybe they've just realized how much I suck. They're always just about to leave, or busy, or simply never return a phone call. *sigh*

I know I'm paranoid. I know I'm insecure. Knowing these things doesn't help shake my suspicions much. I also understand that I've a relatively mild case of arachnophobia... doesn't make me any less scared of spiders.

Ladies! Your boobs and vaginas are fine!

Ugh, I am so sick of fake boobs, botox, vaginal rejuva-fucking-nation, seriously, what the fuck?!

Ladies and gentlemen, but most importantly ladies... STOP. No more elective plastic surgery. It's sickening. So you're rockin' A-cups, eh? So rock 'em like they're hot! Don't get sacks of silicone stuffed under your flesh. Got some wrinkles around your eyes, on your forehead? Fuckin' live with it, don't inject poison into your face! Think your lips are too thin? You're a fuckin' idiot, stop whining and obsessing over your appearance so much that you feel the need to have someone inject collagen into your lips! UGH!

Mini-Reviews 07

Ugh, sorry it's late, I suck. And, I have illusions of grandeur and seem to think there's even people waiting to read these for me to apologize to. And I end my sentences with prepositions... go me!



Doomsday-- Not that I'm necessarily complaining, but, why are post-apocalyptic societies all about the funky haircuts, dyed hair, and tattoos? I mean, really? Good movie, though, I enjoyed it very much. Hella gorey, but, I was watching the unrated version. Character development's not present much, and I didn't find myself with any real attachment to the people who die, but, who cares! Rawr rawr, blood and violence! That seems to be what this movie's basically about; action and violence. Enjoy it for what it is.


The Planet-- B-rate sci-fi film from Britain! Sounds Scottish, but, I'm an ignorant American so I could be wrong. Either way, it's not too great. Acting's good enough, for a B-film. The CG and sound effects seem like they belong in an old Dreamcast or Playstation vidgame cutscene. And sometimes worse. Fairly short film, as well, at about an hour and ten minutes. The story's well enough, I suppose, but there's a shortage of explanation and conclusions. Right up to the end, which made no sense.


Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay-- If you enjoyed Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, you'll probably enjoy this. If you didn't... you won't. Funny as hell, though it managed to be more vulgar [the unrated cut, anyway]. Just a heads up for anyone who'd care.


Lost Boys: The Tribe-- Did Feldman's voice actually get worse over the years? First and foremost, it's not fair to compare this movie to the first Lost Boys. They're two separate films from two different points in time. But, I'm going to, anyway. (^_^) Several things are straight-up over-the-top about this film. And Angus Sutherland's acting is a little... much. And the decision to use demonic voices for the vampires is wicked annoying. Maybe I'm just remembering the first film incorrectly, but, this one seems a little more about the gore, particularly fake intestines, but, that's not necessarily bad, right? Anyway, it's not an entirely bad film, but, it's not that great, either. Even if you don't compare it to the first film. Haim's cameo's cool, though.


Never Back Down-- Kind of an odd mix of MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] and a teen movie. Kind of has a Karate Kid feel to it, but, I don't think it'll be quite as iconic, haha. It's not bad, I suppose, but it ain't that great, either. Djimon Hounsou is awesome, of course. And Sean Faris does well enough. The fights are really cool, easily the best parts of the film. If fighting isn't your thing, well, this obviously isn't the film for you. The soundtrack fuckin' sucked, though, ugh. Just about every song was awful.

Mini-Reviews 06

Bone Eater-- Not good. More boring than anything else. Decent enough acting for the most part and the Bone Eater looks cool, but, not scary, and the animations for his movement are laughable. It looks like they animated him to be a puppet or something. Also, I'm not an expert on Native American mythology, but, I don't recall the Bone Eater being so malignant. He just ushered the dead along to the afterlife [I think, I'm a little fuzzy on the details].


Numb-- Lynn Collins is a delightful actress [and hot] and Matthew Perry is at his finest in this film, quite possibly my favorite role of his I've seen. Wonderful film, I love it.


Timber Falls-- Fairly typical and cliché thriller/slasher fare. Creepy locals, false scares, sexy sex scene, misleads, fanatical religious folk... but, as a fan of slasher films, I enjoyed it and recommend it for any other slasher fans. (^_^) Great acting, good story, just don't expect anything innovative. Be prepared to know exactly what's comin', haha.


Monster High-- Cheesy comedy "horror" film about the end of the world being decided by a basketball game. Fairly entertaining.


The Air I Breathe-- Much like Crash, the film's a collection of vignettes that are all interconnected. Instead of having a central theme of racism, the central theme of these stories is about finding happiness in life and the troubles people go through to find it. Star-studded cast, I'd say it's definitely worth seeing, if only to see the character Brendan Fraser plays. I was skeptical at first, because I just don't see him in darker, tough guy roles, but, he does a great job.


The Messengers-- Fine enough, I suppose, though there's plenty I didn't like about it. At least one of the two twins who played little Ben was a phenomanal actor and there were some genuinely creepy parts. But overall, there's just too much I disliked and too much I questioned. The seemingly random inclusion of crows annoyed me, I just don't find blackbirds inherently terrifying. And some of the scenes were cut far longer than I feel they needed to be. I can only assume they were supposed to be dragging out the suspense, but, it just irritated me. My dislike of the film is nigh solely based on my personal preference, though, it's a well-made film otherwise.

Mini-Reviews 05

I'm runnin' a little late with this one...


Hack!-- Decent acting, nice gore, interesting story-line though mildly predictable with a twist or two, and funny at certain points. Audio quality gets a little wonky sometimes, though, and everything'll sound tinny for no discernible reason. I dunno if it's just the copy of the DVD I watched or what. I found it entertaining, though. It's worth a rent, I'd say.


Day Zero-- Excellent film. I enjoy the story arcs and seeing how the news that they've been drafted to war just destroys a couple of the characters. Elijah Wood's character in particular, to me, is the most interesting.

Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem-- It's an okay film, I guess. Not terribly good, though. It could have definitely used some better lighting. I get it, dark and gritty, but, that was just ridiculous, you can barely see a lot of the time. It feels extremely rushed for a lot of it, as well. Up until, like, the last 20 minutes. The predalien's still wicked cool.


Undead or Alive-- A self-proclaimed "zombedy". It's pretty funny. Morbid ending to both story-lines. Interesting seeing Chris Kattan in a film again, anyhow. And Navi Rawat is hot. (^_^) Special effects kind o' sucked, though, particularly at the end. The whip sound effect every time it cut back and forth from the town was unnecessary, too. Hell, the whole side-story with the Padre seemed entirely useless to the rest of the film. Just made it longer. But don't miss the bloopers during the credits!


P2-- Very good movie. Typical thriller fare, but, what's wrong with that? And, it's well executed. Except the taser bit. Shocking you in the side isn't likely to knock you out, I don't think. Wes Bentley was awesome, as always.


First Sunday-- S'all right. Not terribly funny, but, has its moments. Kind of an uninspired script, as well. But, it's the least irritating performance I've seen of Katt Williams, so, that's a plus. It's not bad.


Sex and Breakfast-- Another all right movie. It's interesting seeing the problems the two couples are having and how the "therapy" affects them differently in the end. Anyone else ever look at Macaulay Culkin and think he's older than 13 or 14? He always looks like a kid pretending to be an adult to me.


Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer-- I try to watch a comic book movie without thinking about the things that will be changed. Some things just don't work as well in film as they do in the comics. I understand that. But some things are changed so arbitrarily in both the first film and this sequel that it just annoys the shit out of me, and I'm not even a huge fan of the Silver Surfer and even less of the Fantastic Four. It's an all right superhero movie, though, if you're not familiar with the comics at all. Anticlimactic end, though.


Sleepwalking-- Very good film. AnnaSophia Robb is a delightful young actress, Dennis Hopper is always cool and always plays a good bad guy, Nick Stahl does a terrific job, and the rest of the cast ain't exactly slouches. Very tragic story, but it has its lighthearted, feel-good moments.


Die Hard 2-- Yeah, I know, I'm nearly 20 years late to the party. I liked the first one better, I think Bruce Willis' performance was stronger in the first one. Beyond that, some cool explosions, some twists here and there in an interesting plot that's quite similar to the first one in structure. The movie came out in 1990 [I think], you should know by now what it's like, haha.

Fuckin' people...

I try so very hard not to hate people and the human race as a whole, and sometimes I almost achieve it. I almost stop hating. Then shit like this happens.

I hate people.

Emo time, 'cause let's face it, I'm a cry-baby

I've gotten into a weird headspace lately. I feel... apart. I don't feel like I'm a part of anyone's life. I chat with very few people anymore, and when I do it has a feel of an acquaintance, the feel of two people who once were close but are no longer yet retain the friendly mood as if nothing's changed.

Maybe that's just because it's all in my head and none of the people I love feel this bizarre distance I do. I've a tendency to be cynical and pessimistic like that. Or, remaining cynical and pessimistic, maybe they don't mention it because they feel sorry for me, and don't have the heart to turn away someone so pathetic?

Mini-Reviews 04

Day of the Dead (2008)-- I love zombie movies, especially gory ones. This film's good and gory, but, I'm not particularly fond of the zombies in this film. First of all, the instantaneous deterioration of the flesh seems absurd to me. And while I prefer the faster variety of zombies as opposed to the slow, shambling, weak kind... super-speed and super-strength and super-froggy jumping abilities... not into that. Not the best kind o' zombie film, but, still pretty cool. Plot? It's a zombie movie! Zombie oubreak, people try to survive it. There you go, haha. Decent acting, as well. Zombie movies are about carnage, and that's in abundance. I sincerely request that Ving Rhames be in every zombie movie ever made from now on.


Grizzly Park-- Bunch of annoying city kids are taken into Grizzly Park to perform community service and clean the parks. What they don't know is there is an escaped serial killer [though he's really just a mass murderer and rapist, not a serial killer by definition] on the loose! And grizzly bears and wolves whom are, inexplicably, hungry for human flesh! And their campmates are irritating stereotypes of various kinds of douchebags and cocksuckers! The acting's really not that bad, editing is nice, some shots are downright beautiful, it's a nice park and all, but, the story's ridiculous and I really don't care about any of the kids being eaten alive. Ending was good, though, nice little twists.


30 Days of Night-- Awesome film! I was a bit sketchy on it at the beginning, because there were, at least in my opinion, some questionable editing decisions. But that was my one and only gripe. Bunch of actor's whom I love, fantastic story, and a powerful ending. Great movie.


Freedom Writers-- I thoroughly enjoy these movies. Troubled teenage dramas. I love them, for one simple reason: I'm a wannabe white boy who wants to feel like he connect with troubled youth. (^_^) Even so, this is a good film, very touching.


The Tattooist-- The plot and some of its points are kind of silly [like the gangsta Somoans in New Zealand who channel spirits via fast cars and loud rap music]. I'm also not really a fan of Jason Behr as an actor. But, it's still a pretty interesting story, and there's lots of wicked tats roamin' around to enjoy.


The Darjeeling Limited-- I'm not sure what to say about this film... It's not bad, really, but... it just kind o' meanders from point to point. It's a very indie film. It's got a few hilarious moments, like when they're fighting on the train. But, it's just kind o'... boring. But, I oddly like it... (o.0) I'm torn. I can tell you that I don't like the short film that's kind of a prelude to this whole movie.


Smiley Face-- Low budget stoner comedy. It's all right. It's packed full of hilarious people in one role after another. Unfortunately, the time in between each wonderful cameo's kind of boring, which kind of brings it down. I get the sense it would be much funnier if you were actually really wasted while watching it, but, it's all right.


Meet Bill-- Really good, very funny movie about a guy going through mid-life crisis, basically. He realizes he's not happy in his marriage, he's not happy at his job, hell, he's not even happy with his appearance, and the film follows him as he figures these things out. I'd recommend seeing this one, it's good stuff.


The Hottie and the Nottie-- Please tell me there are not people who actually think Paris Hilton's hot... ugh. She does an excellent job of playing a stupid as hell woman, though. For some reason, she's some kind of Mr. Miyagi; she's always spoutin' stupid as hell little one-liner pseudo-philosophical bullshit. Joel David Moore's awesome. He's the best part of this film. Him and the albino stalker, haha. June's an awesome character, she's funny, and I feel bad for her at times. She's also got an extremely pleasant voice. Couldn't tell you why I noticed that, but, I did. If you can find it really cheap to rent [I rented it from Redbox, that's a dollar a day, nice and cheap!] check it out, there are good parts and it's kind o' funny. I wouldn't recommend paying too much, though.


Batman: Gotham Knight-- "Have I Got A Story For You"
Don't dig the art style, but, it's cool seein' the differing mind's eye view of Batman from the eyes of a bunch o' kids in Gotham.
"Cross Fire"
The art's greatly improved over the first episode! The idea of an island as an asylum is very cool. Batman also looks very cool.
"Field Test"
Not a fan of this style of Bruce Wayne. Too pretty-boy. Extremely animé interpretation of Batman, though I dig the over-the-shoulder emblem thing he's got goin' on.
"In Darkness Dwells"
I'm unsure why Killer Croc is treated as a new villain, but, right on.
"Working Through Pain"
It's always cool seein' backstory on a beloved character.
"Deadshot"
Also an art style I don't dig. Nice seeing Deadshot, though.

Overall, not too bad. I dislike some of the art styles, but, the vignettes are so short you don't have to live with them long. The idea's cool, but, unlike the Animatrix, it's not building on a particularly unknown universe. Interesting idea, but, not that great.


The Dark Knight-- Awesome. And terribly, terribly sad. One of the most prominent things in my mind the whole time I'm watching Heath Ledger is that the motherfucker's dead. Best performance he's done, and he's dead. (>_<) Fuckin' bullshit. Why can't, like, Lindsay Lohan die? Great, great movie. I gotta say, though, that Batpod thing... looks silly as hell. Does this mean they can bring the Batmobile in finally? Also, if they make another Batman movie with the Joker still present using a different actor, I'm gonna be pissed.


Twin Daggers-- Not very good acting mostly. Story's kind of generic and at times silly. Some okay fights, but mostly just crap with bad wire stunts and sped-up film. And bad stunt doubling. Not a good film in my opinion.


The Ruins-- Entertaining, so long as you go along with it and suspend disbelief. Didn't care much for the ending, except for Jonathan Tucker's performance, though.

E3 2008: Microsoft

I apologize if these haven't terribly interesting, but, these have been my opinions on each E3 conference. Let's get to the last one, Microsoft's.

Woot, Fallout 3 gameplay footage! This is a game I've been kind of following [as closely as I follow any game, that is], so it was nice to get a look at it finally. Looks wicked. I'm really hoping the marching band music isn't ever-present in the game... that'll get irritating, haha. Resident Evil 5, of course. Looks awesome; co-op could be so much fun. But, I'm far more interested in playing it on the Wii than on the 360 or PS3. We'll have to wait and see if it makes its way to the Wii eventually. It would be ridiculous for it not be on there, though. I was never able to get into Fable, tried a couple times, though. After hearing about Fable 2 and seeing the things that take place in the game makes me want to try it again, because Fable 2 looks awesome. Of course, Gears of War 2, which I've been looking forward to since the initial teaser trailer. This game looks awesome. I imagine the competitive multiplayer won't be changed all that much, though, so I probably still won't like that aspect, but, this "hoard" mode sounds pretty cool *shrugs*. Kind of a short presentation, as well, but it's always nice to see some gameplay footage. Portal: Still Alive could be interesting, I've been wanting to play Portal, just haven't purchased it yet. I never got into the Banjo-Kazooie series, what with never owning an N64, so, I'm only mildly interested in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. With the original coming to Xbox Live Arcade, though, I'll be able to give that a shot. Scene it? Box Office Smash looks like more of the same kind of Scene it? game, so, that should be fun. You're In The Movies should be entertaining with a group of friends... who are wasted. (>_>) Guitar Hero World Tour has a seemingly better drum kit, much cooler character creator, and the music creator is awesome. But, this is compared to Rock Band, while Rock Band 2 looks like it'll be shaping up to be awesome itself. Huge tracklist, better drum kit, better guitar, expanded character creator, all the downloadable songs and almost all of the tracks from Rock Band are playable on Rock Band 2... two awesome full-band music games. Fuckin' woot! Guitar Hero Metallica should be wicked, depending on what songs they use in the game. Lips looks almost exactly the same as Singstar, but with a cooler microphone. Being able to sing from my own music collection should be awesome, since the song list usually sucks except for a few good tracks on these karaoke games. I've been looking forward to Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant for awhile now. I'm not as excited for Star Ocean: The Last Hope, but I'm still thinkin' it'll be good.

I'm not sure how I feel about whatever this South Park game is. (o.0) The "trailer" was, like, 10 seconds long and no information was given about it. Just that there's a South Park game coming for the Xbox 360! But, what kind of game?

1 Vs. 100, not interested, it looks like an MMO-type game. Never go into Geometry Wars, so, Geometry Wars 2 holds very little interest. Galaga Legions doesn't look like my kind of game, either. Not terribly interested in that kind of hectic, enemy-filled screen kind of gameplay. No interest in Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, either. And I really don't care that Final Fantasty XIII is coming to the 360, as I haven't been interested in a new Final Fantasy game since... number eight or nine, I forget which now. But not since the original Playstation.

The Xbox Live Community Games looks like it could be really awesome.

Non-game stuff! I'm kind of tired of hearing about how Xbox Live instantaneously connects you. They really need to amend that and add "... so long as you pay us/them. Otherwise, you can't do shit with your friends except talk to them."

Much like with the Sony conference, I've no interest in being able to download films onto my 360. And anybody who has "a pile of discs" to search through doesn't deserve to watch films, as far as I'm concerned. That's disc abuse! Get some cases and learn basic organization skills.

I'm really not looking forward to this new dashboard and, admittedly, a little more interested in the avatar things. Seriously, I like my themes, I like my gamer pictures. Fuck this shit. I'm pissed that I have, apparently, wasted money on the themes and gamer pictures I've downloaded, and that's fucking annoying, Microsoft! Motherfuckers. I do like the Live Party thing. It'll solve the problem me and my friends have where we can only do private chats one-on-one, and we don't generally like to actually chat in the game room, because people are idiots and I hate them. Now, I can remain in a private chat with just my friends! (^_^)

Am I just weird in that I don't want to integrate everything I enjoy doing onto one box? Particularly a box that fails and breaks as consistently as the Xbox 360 does? My television and movies are done separately, and I prefer it that way. No thank you, Netflix! And, seriously, watching movies together... online? What the fuck? (o.0) I think Microsoft has gone insane, y'all.

There, finally made it through all the conferences. *whew*

E3 2008: Mega Man 9

Well, I went and found it since it wasn't a part of the Nintendo Conference vid I watched.

Mega Man 9!

While it's interesting seeing a new game made to look like an old NES game, I think that it's silly. I can not believe there won't be any charge buster or slide, that's plain ridiculous... progress means nothing to Ifune. >_> He'll have his old-school game, without any of those pesky improvements! I'm lookin' forward to it anyway, but I'm not expecting much.

E3 2008: Sony

Let's follow this up with the Sony one, what do y'all say? I don't own a Playstation 3 yet, but, fuck it!

Game breakdown! Resistance 2! Hells yeah, I've wanted to play Resistance: Fall of Man ever since the launch of the PS3, now I want it even more so that I can play its sequel. Eight-player online co-op sounds awesome. LittleBIGPlanet looks awesome, but I'm not as interested in ot because, from everything I've read, it seems to just be a huge level editor. Is there an actual game involved in LittleBIGPlanet? Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty looks cool, and I'm really excited by the concept of small, downloadable games that are continuation, or at least part of, larger franchises and story-lines that are normally disc/cart releases. Resistance: Retribution for the PSP. Woot! Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and LEGO Batman: The Video Game I'm more interested in getting on different consoles. Super Stardust Portable looks interesting, a little Asteroids-y. Patapon looked wicked, so, Patapon 2 could be good if I ever get around to playing the first one and enjoy it, haha. Ghostbusters: The Video Game should be pretty cool, though I am incredibly sad that Rick Moranis won't be reprising his role. =( Soul Calibur IV looks cool. I have no idea what The Agency is all about, but, it looks intriguing. Mirror's Edge looks fascinating! And Resident Evil 5 looks like it could be awesome, especially if the gameplay is anything like Resident Evil 4. But, I'm more interested in playing it on the Wii. Singstar's always fun. Guitar Hero World Tour, while I've never heard of, I'm intrigued but skeptical, since I did not like Guitar Hero III all that much. God of War III!!! I'm just psyched it's comin', the vid they showed at E3 was pre-rendered rather than gameplay which, while cool, doesn't impress me much. Infamous looks awesome, I've been looking forward to that since it was the cover story of Game Informer.

Madden 09 and NBA 09: The Inside, sports games, no interest. Never really got into Loco Roco besides being something to kill time with, so, not much interest in Loco Roco 2. Buzz! Master Quiz and Buzz! Quiz TV... meh. Valkyria Chronicles doesn't hold much interest in me, either, since I have no idea what it is. DC Universe Online and MAG I've no interest in playing despite how cool and interesting they sound, since I have little to no interest in any MMO. Not a huge racing game fan, so, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift doesn't hold anything for me. Quantum of Solace... not a huge fan of Bond either. Zero interest in any Socom, as well. Naruto: Storm... I like the Naruto manga, but, I've never seen the animé and I've no desire to play a Naruto fighting game. I've no interest in Killzone 2, just not a war game fan.

A big part of what I love about Sony is that they didn't just drop the PS2 for the next big thing, and they continue to make games for and push the Playstation 2. So, I like the LEGO Batman bundle they've got comin'. How many Entertainment Packs do you figure they're gonna make for the PSP? Hot damn, $400 80Gb PS3. Nice!

Non-game stuff! More promises about Playstation Home. *shrugs* You can now download movies, so... yeah. Never been into downloading movies onto my 360, so, downloading them onto a PS3 holds no interest to me.

A lot of great games seem to be on their way for the PSP and PS3. It's nice to see Sony getting their shit together this year.

I may watch the Microsoft conference later, I dunno yet. Depends on how bored I end up being.

E3 2008: Nintendo

I'll get around to offering my thoughts on each conference from this year's E3, but, for now I've only watched the Nintendo one.

Game breakdown! I'm mildly curious about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, though I dunno how well such a game will work on the DS. Guitar Hero On Tour Decades... meh. Wasn't interested in Guitar Hero On Tour to begin with beyond a general curiosity, I'm even less interested in a sequel. Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party could be interesting, but, y'know... another mini-game collection, woohoo... speaking of mini-game collections, Wii Sports Resort. A game meant to showcase the new Wii remote features much like the original Wii Sports showed us how the Wii remotes motion-sensing worked. Yet another Pokémon spin-off game, yeah, okay.

Call of Duty, no interest in that franchise at all... Spore Creatures, meh. Watered down version of Spore, from what I gathered. Never got into Animal Crossing, so, not much interest in another iteration.

Games that I am interested in? Wii Music has piqued my interest, though I'm skeptical of how well it'll actually work. Star Wars: The Clone Wars looks like it could be pretty awesome, we'll see what the story-line's supposed to be like. That's about it, really.

Non-game-related stuff! I'm kind of worried about making the Wii remote any more sensitive with their MotionPlus thing. Intriguing, but, I can see it making games so much more difficult than they ever need to be.

Over-all, I'm kind of let down by this. Some stuff I'm mildly interested in, but, nothing to really get me excited for upcoming games on the Wii and Nintendo DS.

(>_<)

Fuckin' insomnia, dude, for real.

Have I posted a blog titled (>_<) before? I think I have... oh well.

Mini-Reviews 03

I've decided I'm just gonna upload these each Friday with what I've watched over the past week. I've got a whole lot of free time lately, so, these'll probably be pretty big as I'm watching at least a movie a day, most of the time two.


Hitman-- Pretty good. I knew Timothy Olyphant would do a good job, he plays a great villain, which is basically what Agent 47 is, really. Was concerned about the quality of the plot and writing, but, it was fairly decent.


American Gangster-- Two hours and fifty-six minutes, roughly. Granted, that's the unrated, extended edition. But, it's only longer by 20 minutes or so. And it's about an hour before the film starts to get interesting. Too damn long, too damn self-indulgent. Good story, nice ending, just way too long.


Shutter-- Fairly ridiculous film in my opinion. It takes forever setting up the film, during which time nothing really scary happens. 50 minutes into the film, shit starts to go down, and some of it's creepy, but some of it's plain silly, as well. Like watching a tall, chubby guy run down a hall and hop over a railing. And then, bitch gets attacked by curtains, I shit you not, and fends off the ghost by yelling at it. Anticlimactic, completely predictable, with the by now cliché "it ain't really over!" ending.


Death Toll-- Not good. A couple good actors, Lou Diamond Phillips and DMX. Unfortunately, DMX makes a total of four appearances, and Lou Diamond Phillips isn't really a big part, though his role grows larger by the end. But, aside from some good rap songs, the film's lacking otherwise. Generic script, plot, dialogue, and B-quality or lower acting, film quality, and audio quality.


Drillbit Taylor-- That little fat kid is fucking awesome. And, I'm probably late to the party, but, has anyone noticed that all of Owen Wilson's characters are the same guy, just with different backgrounds and settings? But the kids in this film are hilarious. Overall, the film's decent.

Mini-Reviews 02

I've got a lot of free time.


The Eye-- Best American remake of a Japanese horror film I've seen. Quite possibly my favorite Jessica Alba performance, as well. I respect an actress willing to look unattractive for a film. Some things are suspect in the film, but, nothing terribly serious. Plus, the phantom escorts look hella cool and creepy.

Strange Wilderness-- Meh. Mediocre most of the time. Some hilarious jokes, but, more often than not the jokes are kind of ridiculous and unfunny. Strong performances, just, not terribly funny material. But, not a fan of Jonah Hill's character in this film, though when he sings a song it makes me laugh. Also, there's moments in the film where there's what seems to be the set-up for a joke, but, there's never the pay-off. It looks like they had fun making it, but, that doesn't necessarily make for a good film.

Mr. Brooks-- Great movie. I think it's really interesting seeing the two sides of the schizophrenic madman. It's also nice to see Dane Cook in a serious role. From what I've read, there's talk of it being the first of a trilogy, which would be interesting to see.

Cloverfield-- Um... very cool. Extremely intriguing way of telling the story, extremely good acting... it actually feels real, feels live, not scripted. I've read complaints about the monster's appearance, that it was lacking in some way and a let down... I don't know why that is. Can't understand it. The film does kind of annoy me, though, because I don't like being ignorant or confused, and I can't stand unanswered questions. I mean, I don't need everything spelled out for me, but, there's just so many questions, haha. I do understand that with the way the film is shot and written it can't answer the questions, but, still... Really good anyway.

Mini-Reviews 01

I've decided to bring the mini-reviews I used to do in my vids to my blog instead. So, once I've got several of them built up, I'll post them here. It won't be anything terribly in-depth, usually, it'll just be some basic thoughts and whether I think it's good or bad. So, let's get started!

Broken Flowers-- Excellent film, except for the ending. Funny and heartfelt, with a very indie feel to the shots and editing.

Doll Graveyard-- Not good. Kind o' bad, in fact. Mostly good acting, but some questionable plot points and some irritatingly unrealistic CG effects, but not many. It's fairly contrived and uninspired, as far as plots go. Maybe Charles Band needs to just the evil puppet films go, ey?

Hatchet-- Excellent film, I had planned a vid or it, but, having issues with that... I may end up just posting it onto my blog if it takes too long to get a new mic.

Meet The Spartans-- Kind o' funny, but overall fairly banal. Some cool cameo-type parts, though. But, when and why did Carmen Electra start doing so many spoof movies?

Juno-- Amazing film! Anyone who does not like this must not have a heart. Funny, quirky, and sad. It made me cry, and there haven't been very many new films that have such an effect on me! And the song in the very last scene is just lovely.

Sweeney Todd-- Excellent film, though I felt it was a bit slow in the beginning. And, as much of an auteur as Tim Burton is, I felt that the way they did the blood, at least as far as the color is concerned, was ridiculous. Just looked stupid. It was nice to hear Johnny Depp sing, though. (^_^)

One Missed Call-- Read the blog immediately before this one. I'll restate it, though; it's a bad movie.

Jumper-- I don't understand why people give this film such a bad rap. It's really pretty damn good, though I'm not a big fan of Hayden Christensen when he pretends to be angry. Jamie Bell's pretty awesome, though. But the plot makes sense, the action scenes are pretty awesome. Best moment in the film is when Griffin (Jamie Bell) is jumping repeatedly at Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) and screaming in rage. Very intense, very cool moment in the film. The ending kind o' sucks, and the film as a whole feels somewhat rushed, but, it's a good movie.


That's it for now. I've gotten into renting movies from Red Box again, so, there're definitely more on the way. I've got The Eye [which I'm watching right now, actually], Mr. Brooks, Strange Wilderness, and Cloverfield at the moment.

Bad Movie Alert!!

One Missed Call is stupid. Be warned!

Plot holes galore, dumb-as-shit ending, and kind o' predictable in the cause behind the killer cell phones!

It does have some decent creepy imagery goin' on, but that's about all, and sometimes it's painfully unrealistic CGI.

Not the worst movie ever, but, not good either.

New vid

'Nough said.

Little Piece O' Convo

Sixty X Celph says:
Need me some o' that Kool-Aid pie... the cat just ran off with my fork...

Mr. Grape says:
LMFAO!

Mr. Grape says:
Now that's a quote!

Mr. Grape says:
That should be your next Blogspot entry, haha!

Sixty X Celph says:
Hah!

Mr. Grape says:
So did you get your fork back?

Sixty X Celph says:
I did, by the gods.

Sixty X Celph says:
She picked it up, took it, set it down, and began to play with it, haha

Mr. Grape says:
Wow, my kitty never did anything close to that, lol.

Sixty X Celph says:
Haha

Sixty X Celph says:
She's such a silly fatty

Mr. Grape says:
She should have went for the pie instead!

Sorry, y'all.

I haven't typed up a weblog nor have I uploaded a new vid to YouTube in awhile. Sorry, y'all.

I just haven't been doing anything much lately, so, nothing to talk about. Been lazin' about watchin' movies and playin' vidgames. Been kind of down and boring. Which wasn't helped by my decision to watch Boys Don't Cry, which is a terribly tragic film and just made me even more depressed. And angry, because I hate people.

In good news, fourth season of Weeds started on Monday, so that was pretty nifty. I think it's off to a good start, getting to interesting places possibly. Good just as easily get irritatingly stupid and pointless, though, so we'll see how that goes.

I realize I should be working on, well, anything, and the gods know I've a backlog of stuff to get to, but... blah. Soon, hopefully. It'd also be nice to get on with my life, or get my life started really depending on how you look at it, but, life's overrated. I hope.

Anyway, so, yeah, hopefully I'll do something soon. I want to, but at the same time, I don't want to do anything, know what I mean?

Better.

Is it weird that I accept that all of my friends are better than me? This is a realization I came upon a few minutes ago. All of my friends are more successful than me. I am a tag-a-long. A coattail-rider, if you will.

Let me detail some of my friends for you and show you what I mean.

One makes music, great music. Probably the best programmer I've ever heard, definitely the best one I know. She also draws a comic. And does a good job from what I've seen, especially for someone who doesn't really do much visual art.

One is yet another musician, and damn good. A variety of musical projects, numerous songs for each. He's also run a fairly popular podcast.

One makes vids. He likes to say that I'm an equal part of it, but, he's gotta be trying to make me feel better. Or he's fooling himself. Either way, he does most everything, and I help out as much as I am capable. Good way to explain it, he could easily continue without me. There wouldn't be anything if it were just me.

There are dozens of examples, but, I imagine that gets my point across. All of my friends are better than me. But, this doesn't bother me. I'm not brought down by this; I am, in fact, quite happy simply to know them and be their friend. To be a part of their lives.

A coattail-rider.

But, then, what does that say about me?

Neuroses Part One of Infinity

It's currently 2:40 a.m. and I can't sleep because I can't stop thinking.

For many years, I've stood by a very simple idea; although I do not want to die, I am not afraid to die. Sounds all falsely noble and pretentious, but it used to be "I'm not afraid to die", but people interpreted that as being suicidal. So, it had to be amended. With that being said, though, I've been thinking about my own mortality [again], and it's time to change it again.

While I do not want to die, I am not afraid of death, but, I am afraid of dying.

Allow me to explain.

I do not want to die. Simple enough. I feel old, but in truth I am very young and have yet to experience many things in life. I am not prepared to die.

I am not afraid of death. Death itself doesn't worry me, doesn't upset me, and does not frighten me. This comes down to my "spiritual" beliefs, or general lack thereof. I do not believe that there is anything after death. I liken it, in my mind, to never waking up from sleep. I don't realize I'm sleeping while I'm asleep, it's only once I've awoke that this realization occurs to me. I will never realize my own death because there is not waking up from death. But, with that in mind...

I am afraid of dying. It can not be predicted, in truth can not be entirely prepared for. I could go to sleep after posting this and never wake up, and I would never know the difference. Add to this the statistics of accidents, statistical death tolls, and how unrealistic it is for me to consider I am not a part of that, that I've no potential to be a part of those statistics. The rational side of me knows that it's a relatively small chance, given the number of people whom die versus the number of people whom survive, but still... there is that small chance. And thus, I fear dying.

While I'm not sure when it started, exactly, somewhere around the age of at least 13, but no older than 15, I have heavily considered, and generally accepted, the fact that I may not live to see my next birthday. And I long believed that I would probably not reach the age of 20. I'm probably jinxing myself, as I haven't actually made it to 20, but it's looking to more and more likely as the weeks drag on.

Just to throw something at the end of this, my fear of dying ties into my dislike of sleeping, my arachnophobia, and the reason I am not comfortable with the idea of living alone. But I think I've typed enough, as it's now 2:56.

PSP!

Got my PSP today!

The funny story I mention and never go into is that if I had waited instead of pre-ordering it, I could have got a free guide for the game with it from Best Buy. (>_<)

Oh, well.

It also doesn't come with a memory stick, which is bullshit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the normal PSP's come with memory sticks? Crappy ones, if I recall, but a memory stick nonetheless? Bullshit. Ah, well, looks like I'll be beating God of War: Chains of Olympus without actually saving the game. (>_<)

(^_^)

Haircut! Even made a vid on YouTube about it.

I like it, I like it a lot. (^____^)

Inflammable

Got Indestructible today, and it's a fantastic reminder of why I enjoy Disturbed as much as I do. (^____^)

I'm a Ramblin' Man

So, yep. The Playstation 2's parental settings for DVD's makes no fucking sense and is ultimately useless except as a nuisance.

I'm thinking about starting to shave my legs as well, anybody got any thoughts?

I have a growing list of DVD's that I need to purchase, but I'm in need of a job first... add to that the games list, and I may need two.

Why are there so many jackasses who play vidgames online? Seriously.

Oh, speaking of vidgames and going back to things that make no sense and are useless, the Xbox 360's ability to avoid or prefer a player you've played with makes no sense and is useless.

In happier news, my pre-order of Indestructible, the new album from Disturbed, shipped a day or two ago, and I'm hoping it's soon. There was an issue where they added this $16 tax to my PSP pre-order, which would have been nice to know beforehand, but whatever. So, I put more money into my bank account, and hopefully that'll be the end of that and it'll ship soon.

I can't think of anything else to add right now. Oh! Here's a good way to end:

Mr. Grape, there's a new vid on YouTube.

(o.o)

So, I'm about to fall asleep minutes ago, when out of the corner of my eye in the darkness there's a bright yellow flash and I hear a loud pop that sounded unmistakably like an electrical spark...

In case it turns out to be some weird kind of premonition and I die in a bizarre electrical fire in my sleep tonight, it was nice knowing you all. (o.o)

Random Info

When I'm talking on the phone, I can not stand still. I wander aimlessly or I pace.

Just sharin'. Anyone else similarly inflicted?

So...

Today's been interesting. Nothing like fixing a light fixture stark naked and dripping wet. *sigh*

Good news, I now have my learner's permit. Maybe I'll start growing up...

Naaaaaaah!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I broke half of my spacebar, so, typing's a whole new experience. Bit slower, but I'm getting used to it.

I Feel...

Old. Among other things. How fucked up is that? This also brings up a metaphysical question; Am I old enough to feel old? Surely I haven't experienced enough in my life to be considered old by any means. But, alas, I feel out of touch. As odd as it sounds, I don't understand kids these days. Then again, I don't understand kids of my own age-bracket. Well... it's complicated. I understand them, but I don't get it, y'know what I mean?

Though, I don't feel there is anything age-restricted, but that belief only pertains to psychological matters. On a physiological level, I'm certainly far too young to feel old... right? But I do, I feel as though my body has aged more than it should. I have problems with my knees, my back's starting to ache more and more... I feel as though I'm deteriorating faster than I should be.

Well, that's enough pretentious bullshit for now.

Why?

Why would you make two versions of a DVD with completely different special features? What the fuck? I'm now glad I have both versions of Saw II, since they have COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FUCKING FEATURES. Yes, the special edition has more features, but it's lacking all the vids from the normal edition.

Why?

WHY?!

... there's no good fucking reason why!

Fuck you, Lions Gate, you cockgobblers.

Typing Takes Forever

Took way too long to do it, but the CD list is finally up. [*]'s denote a burned CD, unfortunately. And I didn't even include the CD's I've ripped or *gasp* downloaded but never burned.

As you can see, I've a long way to go before I've replaced them all with legitimate copies, but I'm workin' on it.

Whew. (>_<)

Thanks to a suggestion from the lovely Fran (chroniclesofbayley), there is now a complete list of all the Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Xbox, and Playstation games I own, as well as a list of the DVD's I own.

They're at the bottom of the right column, and some of them are very long. But if you're ever wondering if I own a DVD or game, there ya have it.

Squee!!!

One of the DVD purchases I made has arrived! And the other should be here by the end of the week at the latest. (^____^)

Initial Thoughts on Mario Kart Wii

I'm just gonna discuss the gameplay here and now. If I can ever get some of my backlog of vids done and do a full review for Mario Kart Wii, I'll discuss other aspects.

First thought? Frustrating.

Where the fuck did those blue shells of death come from? Now, I haven't played a Mario Kart game since the SNES, so it's not surprising that I may have missed some new items along the way, but, seriously... what the fuck is that all about?

I'm also not impressed by the bikes. They look and play fine enough, but for anything more serious that some quick races with friends the karts are the way to go.

Now, that's just initial thoughts. On further examination, the game's not bad in small doses. Much like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there's an immense number of ways to play the game which I am all for, personally. Sometimes a game's just better with a standard controller. With that said, the Wii Wheel is fun for short and simple games with a friend. It's nifty, it's new, it's gimmicky. And it works fairly well. Gamecube controller is better for playing the more difficult circuits, though.

And, Mr. Grape, it's true, there is a barrage of items thrown around. More than once I would find myself smashed by a red shell, followed by a bob-omb explosion or one of those POW items, then finally one of those accursed blue shells. That puts me far behind. And it's really fucking annoying.

I'll reiterate that it's fun in short doses, though. But, I think I'll be getting more play out of my copy of Resident Evil 4 I finally bought while I was there to pick up Mario Kart Wii. At least, once I've unlocked all the karts and characters.

Wiiiiiii

Mario Kart Wii, sorry if you don't see me all day.

Totally let you know what I think of it tomorrow. Unless it sucks, then you'll hear about it later today.

OCD Neat Freak... Usually.

I like my things organized. All my movies, games, and CDs are in alphabetical order. It used to be that I was as organized in my creative ideas. I had a stack of notebooks. One was for lyrics and poetry, one was for dreams, one for bass riffs, etc., etc. Anymore, I just scribble my idea down onto anything handy due to many difficulties in this system: it was too annoying trying to locate the appropriate book from where I had it last, impractical to carry numerous notebooks when I'm on the go, if I had an idea at work I didn't generally have the time to find a notebook I may have brought with me... there were many issues.

Anyway, the whole point to this entry is that I have misplaced the red notebook which had at the end of it the very basic [and barely legible] script idea for "Your Dark Princess". (>_<) This isn't so much a problem of not having the script. Most of it is already contained within a notepad file here on this computer, and I'm fairly confident either I or Tebo could remember any specifics not already typed up. The problem is I have no idea what else was in that notebook [my memory is ostensibly the entire reason I write down any ideas I have as soon as I can].

If you happen to know the whereabouts of my red notebook, please let me know.

UPDATE: Found it! It was tucked into the stupid GED prep book I got.

Holy hell!

Another game to look forward to!

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. Holy shit, yeah! And yet another reason for me to desperately want a PS3, because I'm not a big fan of fighting games with the Xbox controller, greatly prefer the Playstation controller for fighting games.

Graphic Seasonal Violence

Holy shit! As of yesterday, summer seems to officially be here. Yesterday, above 70ºF. Day before that? I don't think it even reached 65ºF. The sun was litetally in the sky yesterday for an hour longer than it had been the day before, or so it seemed.

Summer just leapt upon me in a dark alley, beat the shit out of me, raped my asshole, and then didn't even have the decency to leave me alone; broken and violated. It just hovers over me, enveloping me with the unnatural heat it exudes! Mocking! Jeering at my shame!

I hate summer.

Instead of a Vidlog... Rambling Text.

I don't have the patience to wait and wait for this computer, which has randomly slowed down to a dying crawl all of a sudden, to actually be bothered to load websites and uploaders and such, so! You're getting a weblog instead of a vidlog.

Bought some new games:

Luigi's Mansion [NGC]
Star Ocean: Till The End of Time [PS2] [fun game, just never got around to owning it myself]
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass [NDS]

I also reserved Mario Kart Wii, so, can hardly wait to enjoy that once it's out.

News in my life... almost seems like nothing, as usual... let me think harder...

Note of interest! Why does everyone but me care so fucking much about me taking the GED exam? I don't even care, why should they? Is it weird that they seem so invested in it? Is that normal for people who claim to care about whether or not you get some silly-ass wannabe diploma?

Oh, hey, relived [in that I told the story to someone else, not in that I reenacted them a second time] some painful memories. Almost falling out of a moving car, falling over stairs and snapping my collarbone, putting my arms through a window... good times, in retrospect. Sucked in their own moments, but as stories from my past, good times.

"Your Dark Princess" vid being worked toward some more, purchased supplies to create the necessary backdrop. Barring an untimely death, will be working more on that this coming Friday. A new idea was brought up 'twixt Tebo and myself for a script that could be potentially intriguing. We'll see where that goes, neh?

Haven't really worked on music in forever. I recorded an cappella song in the hopes of whetting appetites for that sXc album that's forever in progress. Haven't mixed it yet, haven't had much free access to the computer lately. I think I'm reaching a breaking point for working by myself. I'm a very co-dependent person, so, I desperately need that collaborative feel of being in a band, but no one I know plays an instrument [including me], I'm too shy for meeting new people easily, and I suck at singing. Whoopee!

I think I'm done rambling for now. Stay tuned for the next stream of consciousness weblog!

P.S.
If anybody else out there feels that they're starting to get sick of me, please don't make lame excuses. Just tell me straight up the deal. I feel as though this is happening currently, though I won't name names [I'm damn near certain she doesn't read this thing, nor does anybody else whom would know the person if I did type a name, but I'm still not going to] and it sucks. It could be my paranoia working again, but it just feels like she absolutely does not want to be around me.

Crisis Averted?

More like crisis postponed, but I'll take what I can get.

Whuh-oh!

Could be few and far between on announcements, vids, etc. etc. Runnin' into some computer issues, slowin' my internet waaaaay down.

So, if you don't see me for a week, or even a few days, that's why.

For Mavrek's Curiosity

Some of my favorite movies when I was littler were The Crow, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Warriors of Virtue, Clue, and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie. As I've grown, Warriors of Virtue and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie kind of fell off that particular list, though I still enjoy them. To take their place, though, came along X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and Superbad.

So, current favorite movies list [in no particular order]:

The Crow
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Clue
X-Men
X2: X-Men United
Superbad