Sunday, August 19, 2007
-Hey yo! Well, this will prolly be my last update before class starts up for me again in 9 days. Just been keepin myself busy and enjoying the last weeks of summer.
-So I had two pairs of days off since my last entry. On my first set I went camping with my Dad at the campground we always use to go to when growing up at Lake Sarah. Joey was suppose to go with us too and I was really looking forward to him joining us as I was planning to bring a couple board games out there that I know both Joe and my Dad both loves like Risk and Monopoly. Unfortunately Joe ended up bailing out at the last minute so it was just my dad and I. Campgrounds were just like I remembered them and brought back many memories, the lst time I was there was around 2002. First night there was fun we roasted some smores and had some drinks around the campfire and he taught me how to play the card game, Pinnochle. That night was fun, but by the second day things were just getting boring.
I didn't bring my board games since Joe couldn't make it, but I did bring my football and basketball. Played a bunch of rounds of HORSE with my dad and tossed football a couple of times too. However that was pretty much all of Saturday, repeating those two things along with more Pinnochle. I'm not one for a whole lot of swimming and boating activities, yes...I know it's the lake, but I'm just done with that stuff. By 8:30 I was bored out of my mind from doing the same 3 things over and over so I brought up catching a movie at Crookston which was about a half hour away. We decided to leave the campground a night early as we would just head back to town after the flick. We saw Rush Hour 3, it was pretty over the top and there several jokes I just rolled my eyes at, but since it's Chan you know the action is top notch, and Tucker provides some great comic relief. Not the ideal action-comedy, but one worth renting/checking out. 6.5/10
-On other set of days off I spent one of them hanging out with Matt & Danielle. I brought Gamers DVD over and we watched that. Matt got a recently purchased a bunch of older SNES and Genesis co-op games too that we played. Some games like Contra III: Alien Wars and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for SNES were freaking hard. We attempted to beat Captain America and the Avengers again....twice....and failed both times with continues set to max of 7. First we set it on normal and got about halfway thru the last level, then we put it on easy and we made it to the Red Skull at the end but lost to him in his second form. One day we will beat that game!
On the other day off I hung out with Scott and Chris. We played a lot of Guitar Hero trying to oust each other's high scores and then we continued our DnD campaign. I got the few DnD books I ordered online in the mail at that point (Player's Handbook 3.5, DM guide 3.5, DnD for Dummies) and yeah, I am pretty into it at this point. It's just something different from playing the same video games over and over, and of course DnD has many possibilities since a lot of it is based on your imagination. A few days later all three of us met again and Joey joined us to get in on the campaign too and good times were had.
-So last weekend Gamestop held their yearly Madden tournament. As usual, their prizes continue to degrade. Before the winner got a copy of the newest game on the platform of their choice. Now the two winners get a prize with the winner choosing between either a 360 Madden 08 Faceplate (yes, pretty cool) or a $10, yes $10 Gamestop gift card. Wheee. Anyway they were playing Madden 07 on 360 throughout the tournament, which unfortunately I didn't get a chance to play up until that point. So before the tourney started I played for several minutes to get the latest controls down. Only 5 people showed up to compete, and I knew 3 of the other 4. Steve and my brother Joey were playing, and Willy (who also happened to compete in the Guitar Hero 2 tournament was also playing).
For rules we had 4 minute quarters and that you had to play as one team throughout the whole tournament. I wanted the 49ers of course, but they were rated a 77 in the game so I just couldn't force myself to play with so many sub-par rated players. So I picked the Cardinals who were rated an 87. In the first round I had to play Steve, and we had a very down to the wire match-up. In the end I won with a last minute touchdown to seal the game. On the other side of the tournament Joey got dominated and shutout by the other guy playing I didn't know. Since, there was 5 people that meant one side got a bye, and a coin flip didn't go my way so I ended up facing Willy, and just like Steve we had a very close match and it came down to the wire and I won with another game ending drive TD to win 35-28.
In the finals I met the guy who took out Joe, and he was playing with the Vikings. I watched him against Joe and I thought I had no chance. Surprisingly enough I had control of the first drive and every play went my way and I went ahead early 7-0 which got my opponent to say "I got to get use to your offense".....it was the only time I lead during the game. The other guy was very hard to stop, and while he never really ran away with the game, I just couldn't catch up to him. In the end he won, 27-17. Since he didn't have a 360, he took the gift card and I walked away with a face plate....huzzah! Joey, Steve, and Willy all got coupons for cases of Dew for consolation prizes, so it wasn't a total lost.
-Saw Bourne Ultimatum at the theater a few days ago too. Damn good flick. Seeing it reassured me on how it'll turn out, I don't really a have a fave of the three, I consider all three to be great as all of them keep that high level of intensity going throughout the flick. This one had the standard awesome chase and fight scenes as the past couple did. Basically, if you loved past Bourne movies, you will love this one too.
-I was going to start picking up on Punisher where I left off for my main console game to play since I thought I have only a few more levels left to beat it, I got a good ways through one level but couldn't make time to finish it so all that progress was gone. I will prolly pick it up again real soon, but with all that DnD playing I have been up to lately it got me craving fantasy RPG games. Chris borrowed me Dark Alliance I&II for Xbox. I played it awhile back and got several hours in and never finished and figured Scott would like it as the perfect co-op game, and I was right! We're only about a couple hours in on the first game but he is digging it a lot.
I also picked up where I left off on Oblivion again a few days ago. I have started the Mages Guild missions (2 months ago I decided to take a break after beating all of the Fighters Guild quests). I think from there after I complete all of the Mage Guild, I will move onto finish the main quest which I think I am halfway thru because I don't wanna tackle the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests in the middle of the main campaign and cause myself to huge bounty on my head.
-Been awhile since I commented on the wrestling scene, so here are my thoughts about the current shows..
RAW - I love watching it live as always, I guess the past couple shows haven't had too much wrestling, but I think I am in a minority that got a good chuckle out of the WWE Idol and Dating Game skits they had on the past couple weeks. I do wish they push their tag division on their a bit more then give them some 3-4 minute throwaway matches lately as they have a great division in my view with London & Kendrick, Cade & Murdoch, Benjamin & Haas, and hell even Cryme Tyme for comic relief. Skits are awesome, but please get rid of Snitsky and Cena. Lashley is on a hiatus cuz of injury and I consider that a plus since he has been on tv way too much this year. Cena has been the champ for WWE for all but three months of the past 2 and a half years. It's time for a change. If I were to grade how much I like RAW now from 1 to 10, I'd go 7.5
Smackdown - Smackdown has kinda always been the show where I can count on to get a good dose of wrestling. It has some interesting skits and storylines, as I like how they are having very nice pacing and plot development with the Kristal & Teddy Long marriage/relationship storyline, among others. I have no idea why the continue to make the Cruiserweight division a joke, at least let cruiserweights all wrestle each other exclusively with at least one match a show instead of having job all the time like Moore and Knoble did lately. Hornswaggle as their champ is fun for now, and I just hope it doesn't last too long. Khali as champ is a major downer and I got a feeling his reign is going to last for a long time....possibly even Wrestlemania. Plus they need some fresh acts in the main event, I know their roster is really hurt with injuries but by next month both Taker and Rey will be back and hopefully that roster will start to get built up again. My SMackdown score - 6.5
ECW - Y'know they should just move all the cruiserweights onto ECW and make it a cruiserweight to light heavyweight program. I think that would be a terrific fit for that brand. Right now, at first I didn't like Nitro's makeover into John Morrison, but now it has grown on me a lot and Nitro has actually developed a pretty good heel personality on the microphone which has potential to explode pretty soon in my view. I like CM Punk, but I think he still is missing a couple things to make him feel like a top level star. Stevie Richards is getting wins lately, that is always awesome. Please bring back Cor Von, I know he's on leave but he was always a cool badass and give him some mic time! Big Daddy V is an awesome new heel character and a fresh makeover for the man that was Viscera, and I guess Boogeyman is a perfect excuse for the show being on sci-fi (along with Kevin Thorne) but Boogey needs to boogey the hell outta ECW and go back into that awesome feud with Little Boogey against Finlay and Hornswaggle! Overall though, ECW has improved a bit, but still has a ways to go, but right now I enjoy watching as it is a quick watch when trying to manage around 5 other hours of wrestling. ECW score - 6.5/10
TNA - Man, is this show a mess. Please stop bringing in damn near every single ex-WWE wrestler. Why bring in Test!? Why!!!! Nobody likes him!!! I wanna say they're stupid as hell for bringing in PacMan Jones for all the huge negative press and that fact that Pacman will prolly negatively influence the TNA locker room then help it, but right now I am actually enjoying his little tag team angle with Ron Killings and am curious how he is actually going to perform at the upcoming PPV in that match with his current restraining order from the NFL. All but 2 of the top 10 guys in TNA or former names from WWE and WCW, their only original stars are Samoa Joe & Abyss (I don't consider AJ Style that popular right now as he just seems like more of a lackey character on the show with no real importance to anything).
A lof of the time they do a bad job bringing in guys from WWE, but there are some exceptions. Kurt Angle is freaking hilarious and a killer heel at the same time. TNA has actually made me a fan of Tomko now, and I really like Christian's faction of heels, Christian's heel run has been totally killer in TNA. Though a lot more of the show still needs work, they do push the X division, but not what they use to, at one time for awhile it was almost equal with their heavyweight division....not so much anymore, but at least they get some decent TV time. The show also seems to be very chaotic with too much crap happening and more gimmick matches I could give a crap about. But again, like ECW, I enjoy it because it is quick watch at an hour and they do usually manage to have some entertaining stuff on each show. My TNA score - 5.5/10
-Damn my wrestling commentary went on a lot longer than I wanted to, I'm sure a good chunk of you guys skipped over that, but I don't blame you, but if you read feel free to comment back here with your scores on the four brands of wrestling now as I would like to see how my thoughts match up with yours. Thanks, and goodbye for now everybody!
-So I had two pairs of days off since my last entry. On my first set I went camping with my Dad at the campground we always use to go to when growing up at Lake Sarah. Joey was suppose to go with us too and I was really looking forward to him joining us as I was planning to bring a couple board games out there that I know both Joe and my Dad both loves like Risk and Monopoly. Unfortunately Joe ended up bailing out at the last minute so it was just my dad and I. Campgrounds were just like I remembered them and brought back many memories, the lst time I was there was around 2002. First night there was fun we roasted some smores and had some drinks around the campfire and he taught me how to play the card game, Pinnochle. That night was fun, but by the second day things were just getting boring.
I didn't bring my board games since Joe couldn't make it, but I did bring my football and basketball. Played a bunch of rounds of HORSE with my dad and tossed football a couple of times too. However that was pretty much all of Saturday, repeating those two things along with more Pinnochle. I'm not one for a whole lot of swimming and boating activities, yes...I know it's the lake, but I'm just done with that stuff. By 8:30 I was bored out of my mind from doing the same 3 things over and over so I brought up catching a movie at Crookston which was about a half hour away. We decided to leave the campground a night early as we would just head back to town after the flick. We saw Rush Hour 3, it was pretty over the top and there several jokes I just rolled my eyes at, but since it's Chan you know the action is top notch, and Tucker provides some great comic relief. Not the ideal action-comedy, but one worth renting/checking out. 6.5/10
-On other set of days off I spent one of them hanging out with Matt & Danielle. I brought Gamers DVD over and we watched that. Matt got a recently purchased a bunch of older SNES and Genesis co-op games too that we played. Some games like Contra III: Alien Wars and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for SNES were freaking hard. We attempted to beat Captain America and the Avengers again....twice....and failed both times with continues set to max of 7. First we set it on normal and got about halfway thru the last level, then we put it on easy and we made it to the Red Skull at the end but lost to him in his second form. One day we will beat that game!
On the other day off I hung out with Scott and Chris. We played a lot of Guitar Hero trying to oust each other's high scores and then we continued our DnD campaign. I got the few DnD books I ordered online in the mail at that point (Player's Handbook 3.5, DM guide 3.5, DnD for Dummies) and yeah, I am pretty into it at this point. It's just something different from playing the same video games over and over, and of course DnD has many possibilities since a lot of it is based on your imagination. A few days later all three of us met again and Joey joined us to get in on the campaign too and good times were had.
-So last weekend Gamestop held their yearly Madden tournament. As usual, their prizes continue to degrade. Before the winner got a copy of the newest game on the platform of their choice. Now the two winners get a prize with the winner choosing between either a 360 Madden 08 Faceplate (yes, pretty cool) or a $10, yes $10 Gamestop gift card. Wheee. Anyway they were playing Madden 07 on 360 throughout the tournament, which unfortunately I didn't get a chance to play up until that point. So before the tourney started I played for several minutes to get the latest controls down. Only 5 people showed up to compete, and I knew 3 of the other 4. Steve and my brother Joey were playing, and Willy (who also happened to compete in the Guitar Hero 2 tournament was also playing).
For rules we had 4 minute quarters and that you had to play as one team throughout the whole tournament. I wanted the 49ers of course, but they were rated a 77 in the game so I just couldn't force myself to play with so many sub-par rated players. So I picked the Cardinals who were rated an 87. In the first round I had to play Steve, and we had a very down to the wire match-up. In the end I won with a last minute touchdown to seal the game. On the other side of the tournament Joey got dominated and shutout by the other guy playing I didn't know. Since, there was 5 people that meant one side got a bye, and a coin flip didn't go my way so I ended up facing Willy, and just like Steve we had a very close match and it came down to the wire and I won with another game ending drive TD to win 35-28.
In the finals I met the guy who took out Joe, and he was playing with the Vikings. I watched him against Joe and I thought I had no chance. Surprisingly enough I had control of the first drive and every play went my way and I went ahead early 7-0 which got my opponent to say "I got to get use to your offense".....it was the only time I lead during the game. The other guy was very hard to stop, and while he never really ran away with the game, I just couldn't catch up to him. In the end he won, 27-17. Since he didn't have a 360, he took the gift card and I walked away with a face plate....huzzah! Joey, Steve, and Willy all got coupons for cases of Dew for consolation prizes, so it wasn't a total lost.
-Saw Bourne Ultimatum at the theater a few days ago too. Damn good flick. Seeing it reassured me on how it'll turn out, I don't really a have a fave of the three, I consider all three to be great as all of them keep that high level of intensity going throughout the flick. This one had the standard awesome chase and fight scenes as the past couple did. Basically, if you loved past Bourne movies, you will love this one too.
-I was going to start picking up on Punisher where I left off for my main console game to play since I thought I have only a few more levels left to beat it, I got a good ways through one level but couldn't make time to finish it so all that progress was gone. I will prolly pick it up again real soon, but with all that DnD playing I have been up to lately it got me craving fantasy RPG games. Chris borrowed me Dark Alliance I&II for Xbox. I played it awhile back and got several hours in and never finished and figured Scott would like it as the perfect co-op game, and I was right! We're only about a couple hours in on the first game but he is digging it a lot.
I also picked up where I left off on Oblivion again a few days ago. I have started the Mages Guild missions (2 months ago I decided to take a break after beating all of the Fighters Guild quests). I think from there after I complete all of the Mage Guild, I will move onto finish the main quest which I think I am halfway thru because I don't wanna tackle the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests in the middle of the main campaign and cause myself to huge bounty on my head.
-Been awhile since I commented on the wrestling scene, so here are my thoughts about the current shows..
RAW - I love watching it live as always, I guess the past couple shows haven't had too much wrestling, but I think I am in a minority that got a good chuckle out of the WWE Idol and Dating Game skits they had on the past couple weeks. I do wish they push their tag division on their a bit more then give them some 3-4 minute throwaway matches lately as they have a great division in my view with London & Kendrick, Cade & Murdoch, Benjamin & Haas, and hell even Cryme Tyme for comic relief. Skits are awesome, but please get rid of Snitsky and Cena. Lashley is on a hiatus cuz of injury and I consider that a plus since he has been on tv way too much this year. Cena has been the champ for WWE for all but three months of the past 2 and a half years. It's time for a change. If I were to grade how much I like RAW now from 1 to 10, I'd go 7.5
Smackdown - Smackdown has kinda always been the show where I can count on to get a good dose of wrestling. It has some interesting skits and storylines, as I like how they are having very nice pacing and plot development with the Kristal & Teddy Long marriage/relationship storyline, among others. I have no idea why the continue to make the Cruiserweight division a joke, at least let cruiserweights all wrestle each other exclusively with at least one match a show instead of having job all the time like Moore and Knoble did lately. Hornswaggle as their champ is fun for now, and I just hope it doesn't last too long. Khali as champ is a major downer and I got a feeling his reign is going to last for a long time....possibly even Wrestlemania. Plus they need some fresh acts in the main event, I know their roster is really hurt with injuries but by next month both Taker and Rey will be back and hopefully that roster will start to get built up again. My SMackdown score - 6.5
ECW - Y'know they should just move all the cruiserweights onto ECW and make it a cruiserweight to light heavyweight program. I think that would be a terrific fit for that brand. Right now, at first I didn't like Nitro's makeover into John Morrison, but now it has grown on me a lot and Nitro has actually developed a pretty good heel personality on the microphone which has potential to explode pretty soon in my view. I like CM Punk, but I think he still is missing a couple things to make him feel like a top level star. Stevie Richards is getting wins lately, that is always awesome. Please bring back Cor Von, I know he's on leave but he was always a cool badass and give him some mic time! Big Daddy V is an awesome new heel character and a fresh makeover for the man that was Viscera, and I guess Boogeyman is a perfect excuse for the show being on sci-fi (along with Kevin Thorne) but Boogey needs to boogey the hell outta ECW and go back into that awesome feud with Little Boogey against Finlay and Hornswaggle! Overall though, ECW has improved a bit, but still has a ways to go, but right now I enjoy watching as it is a quick watch when trying to manage around 5 other hours of wrestling. ECW score - 6.5/10
TNA - Man, is this show a mess. Please stop bringing in damn near every single ex-WWE wrestler. Why bring in Test!? Why!!!! Nobody likes him!!! I wanna say they're stupid as hell for bringing in PacMan Jones for all the huge negative press and that fact that Pacman will prolly negatively influence the TNA locker room then help it, but right now I am actually enjoying his little tag team angle with Ron Killings and am curious how he is actually going to perform at the upcoming PPV in that match with his current restraining order from the NFL. All but 2 of the top 10 guys in TNA or former names from WWE and WCW, their only original stars are Samoa Joe & Abyss (I don't consider AJ Style that popular right now as he just seems like more of a lackey character on the show with no real importance to anything).
A lof of the time they do a bad job bringing in guys from WWE, but there are some exceptions. Kurt Angle is freaking hilarious and a killer heel at the same time. TNA has actually made me a fan of Tomko now, and I really like Christian's faction of heels, Christian's heel run has been totally killer in TNA. Though a lot more of the show still needs work, they do push the X division, but not what they use to, at one time for awhile it was almost equal with their heavyweight division....not so much anymore, but at least they get some decent TV time. The show also seems to be very chaotic with too much crap happening and more gimmick matches I could give a crap about. But again, like ECW, I enjoy it because it is quick watch at an hour and they do usually manage to have some entertaining stuff on each show. My TNA score - 5.5/10
-Damn my wrestling commentary went on a lot longer than I wanted to, I'm sure a good chunk of you guys skipped over that, but I don't blame you, but if you read feel free to comment back here with your scores on the four brands of wrestling now as I would like to see how my thoughts match up with yours. Thanks, and goodbye for now everybody!
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