Monday, July 14, 2008
-Hadoken! Excuse the delayed blog, but I have been experiencing horrible laptop issues. A couple days ago it got hit up with some nasty spyware, the kind that loves to automatically spawn a pop-up ad every 5 minutes, and it got worse from there. I'm going to be dropping it off for Chris to work on later today and figure out what the hell happened. As of now I'm updating this from my ancient AMD 700 mhz desktop that I have been neglecting to upgrade for years. If memory serves right, the last update I did was in 2002 so I could run Warcraft III.
-The last couple of weekends went pretty well for me. Went down to Fargo with Matt and watched both of the two seasons of Da Ali-G Show. The last show had some of the best skits, with Bruno's Spring Break, and Borat's country concert stealing the show! Speaking of HBO series, I finally finished the Extras DVD set, all I had left was the Series Finale special and it was a fitting conclusion to everything that had a bunch of nonsense and awkward pause gags that the previous episodes were known for.
-I picked up a few DVDs this past week. I was planning on going to Best Buy to purchase Shoot-em-Up, but earlier in the day when I was at the grocer store I noticed in their used DVD section they had it for $9, so booya for unintentional $6 savings over at Best Buy. Also purchased The Definitive Ric Flair Collection. Watched the biography portion of it, and half of the matches on disc 2 so far. Biography is awesome, but it the last half of the career is essentially a cliffs notes version, which sucks because it was the part of Ric Flair's career I grew up with and remembered the most, but the first half of his career through the early 90s is covered in great detail. I thought the first Ric Flair set was amazing, but this one is just as good a collection. Finally, I picked up a UFC DVD. I saw some MMA live events before and I think it's a thrill watching it love, but for some reason never got hooked on UFC. Sure I'll watch it if I run across it on a television for a few minutes, but that's about it. When I noticed the Best of 2007 DVD set featuring 15 fights in their entirety for $15, it seemed like a good introductory deal. Didn't get around to watching it yet, but I have a good feeling about this one.
-In other recent purchase news, I bought my first music CD in awhile. Haven't been pirating mind you, I actually find myself listening to podcasts more nowadays instead of music. Anyways, I picked up the Rocky Balboa Best of soundtrack. Saw it at the store and couldn't resist, those tunes are so inspirational. Also saw a new Everclear CD for sale that went completely off my radar, and after noticing it I can see why. It's just a cover album, several of which have already been floating around the market in some form for years now like their covers of "American Girl," "Boys are Back in Town," "Jenny," and "Brown Eyed Girl." I didn't pick it up yet, but I most likely will pretty soon since I have all their other discs.
-I caught a few films recently. I finally got around to watching my 61* DVD, which was about the home-run race in 1961. 61* reminded me a lot of when I was huge into baseball during my childhood. I'm a sucker for sports films, but this was easily one of the better ones I have seen in awhile, and like Eight Man Out it captured that era for me, and it felt like 1960s baseball. I also saw Get Smart with Joey at the theater. I was a little hesitant going in to see it, and only saw it because yes, The Rock was in it, and I also heard some good things from coworkers about it. Came out loving it, shockingly good and hilarious spy film. Never watched the old tv series, but both my parents told me great things about it. For a non-R rated film I was shocked at the number of times I couldn't help but crack up at the witty one-liners and embarrassing moments Steve Carell puts himself in. High recommendation to check out Get Smart. Finally, I just finished watching Hancock, and I don't know what to make of the film coming out of it. Film had some great moments and lines, but the whole superhero nature of it made it incredibly hard to suspend belief. I did like the twist though and have to admit I didn't see it coming at all.
-Went to the demolition derby with my dad and Joey at the town fair yesterday. As longtime readers of this fine blog will know, I'm a huge demo-derby fan, and had a grand time watching the cars annihilate each other with blistering 10mph hits! Definite highlight hit of the derby was in the last heat, if you haven't been to a derby they separate the contestants onto two sides of the boxed off derby area and they usually start off with all the racers colliding head-on in the middle. Well, one car had a problem starting at the beginning of the heat and the vehicle directly across from him seized the opportunity and gunned it right at him and must have delivered a solid 30-35mph head-on hit that impacted his victim so hard that it sent the vehicle halfway up the concrete barrier. You just had to be there. All that derby mayhem inspired Joey and I to tear it up on Flatout on Xbox Live and we had a fun night of online derby racing action.
-Family threw a bonfire last night. It was an idea of my sister to have a bonfire, but when we started it, she was already asleep for the night. So it only ended up being myself along with Joey and his two friends Andy & Jake. Something about getting around a fire is so welcoming to me, makes for a good time to gather around, bust open some brews and shoot the breeze, which was what we did for about a good four hours. Need to do that more often nowadays.
-As usual, have been playing a ton of Rock Band lately. Had a good run with Scott and Chris in our Band Tour a couple weekends ago where we completed all the gigs for a sixth city. Chris and I picked up our Band Tour again a couple nights ago and we reached the last gig in New York City, the 18-song East Coast Marathon, where have to to perform each song at least on Hard difficulty. Chris and I actually made some good progress and 4 and 5 starred a lot of the songs, but on track 13 we got stuck on that damn Molly Hatchet song and repeatedly failed several times in a row before finally throwing in the towl. Damn you Molly Hatchet! As a result, I started up Hard solo tour in Rock Band and am determined to plow through that so I can tweak my laughable skills at the game.
-As far as what else I have been playing, I had a good session with Eternal Sonata yesterday. 20 hours in now, and I finished up Act 4 (of 6). I finally got around to trying Mario Kart Wii for the first time over at Chris's. Hate the straight-up Wii-mote motion control scheme, but attaching a nunchuck made it far more functional. Nice to see motorcycles and now up to 12 racers on the track also. Richard and Paul came over a couple nights ago and we threw down in some traditional local multiplayer of Halo 3 and Smackdown vs RAW 2008. Richard somehow won all the matches we played, and he did it by picking some of the worst wrestlers in the game such as the Great Khali, and he said he never even played the game before. I'm starting to slowly take like SvR08 again, after initially being severely disappointed with it.
-Finally since my last blog we have recorded not one, not two, but 3 podcasts! We are at an all time high of 7 straight weeks with a show. Recording the 3DO retrospective was a hoot. We threw in all of my 15 3DO games before the show briefly (except for Twisted which was so damn fun we completed a whole game, which I won by the way!), with many sucking it up big time, but several providing some decent times like Road Rash, Gex, Return Fire, and Twisted. awesomeness and Reviews go nuts! On the other shows we finally got around to recording a belated roundtable review for GTAIV, and we also did a mini-E3 preview. If you haven't checked them out yet, head to the new site for our show at ontappodcast.com and please give us a try.
-That wraps another insanely long entry from me. If you managed to read it all the way through, then my hat is off to you!
-The last couple of weekends went pretty well for me. Went down to Fargo with Matt and watched both of the two seasons of Da Ali-G Show. The last show had some of the best skits, with Bruno's Spring Break, and Borat's country concert stealing the show! Speaking of HBO series, I finally finished the Extras DVD set, all I had left was the Series Finale special and it was a fitting conclusion to everything that had a bunch of nonsense and awkward pause gags that the previous episodes were known for.
-I picked up a few DVDs this past week. I was planning on going to Best Buy to purchase Shoot-em-Up, but earlier in the day when I was at the grocer store I noticed in their used DVD section they had it for $9, so booya for unintentional $6 savings over at Best Buy. Also purchased The Definitive Ric Flair Collection. Watched the biography portion of it, and half of the matches on disc 2 so far. Biography is awesome, but it the last half of the career is essentially a cliffs notes version, which sucks because it was the part of Ric Flair's career I grew up with and remembered the most, but the first half of his career through the early 90s is covered in great detail. I thought the first Ric Flair set was amazing, but this one is just as good a collection. Finally, I picked up a UFC DVD. I saw some MMA live events before and I think it's a thrill watching it love, but for some reason never got hooked on UFC. Sure I'll watch it if I run across it on a television for a few minutes, but that's about it. When I noticed the Best of 2007 DVD set featuring 15 fights in their entirety for $15, it seemed like a good introductory deal. Didn't get around to watching it yet, but I have a good feeling about this one.
-In other recent purchase news, I bought my first music CD in awhile. Haven't been pirating mind you, I actually find myself listening to podcasts more nowadays instead of music. Anyways, I picked up the Rocky Balboa Best of soundtrack. Saw it at the store and couldn't resist, those tunes are so inspirational. Also saw a new Everclear CD for sale that went completely off my radar, and after noticing it I can see why. It's just a cover album, several of which have already been floating around the market in some form for years now like their covers of "American Girl," "Boys are Back in Town," "Jenny," and "Brown Eyed Girl." I didn't pick it up yet, but I most likely will pretty soon since I have all their other discs.
-I caught a few films recently. I finally got around to watching my 61* DVD, which was about the home-run race in 1961. 61* reminded me a lot of when I was huge into baseball during my childhood. I'm a sucker for sports films, but this was easily one of the better ones I have seen in awhile, and like Eight Man Out it captured that era for me, and it felt like 1960s baseball. I also saw Get Smart with Joey at the theater. I was a little hesitant going in to see it, and only saw it because yes, The Rock was in it, and I also heard some good things from coworkers about it. Came out loving it, shockingly good and hilarious spy film. Never watched the old tv series, but both my parents told me great things about it. For a non-R rated film I was shocked at the number of times I couldn't help but crack up at the witty one-liners and embarrassing moments Steve Carell puts himself in. High recommendation to check out Get Smart. Finally, I just finished watching Hancock, and I don't know what to make of the film coming out of it. Film had some great moments and lines, but the whole superhero nature of it made it incredibly hard to suspend belief. I did like the twist though and have to admit I didn't see it coming at all.
-Went to the demolition derby with my dad and Joey at the town fair yesterday. As longtime readers of this fine blog will know, I'm a huge demo-derby fan, and had a grand time watching the cars annihilate each other with blistering 10mph hits! Definite highlight hit of the derby was in the last heat, if you haven't been to a derby they separate the contestants onto two sides of the boxed off derby area and they usually start off with all the racers colliding head-on in the middle. Well, one car had a problem starting at the beginning of the heat and the vehicle directly across from him seized the opportunity and gunned it right at him and must have delivered a solid 30-35mph head-on hit that impacted his victim so hard that it sent the vehicle halfway up the concrete barrier. You just had to be there. All that derby mayhem inspired Joey and I to tear it up on Flatout on Xbox Live and we had a fun night of online derby racing action.
-Family threw a bonfire last night. It was an idea of my sister to have a bonfire, but when we started it, she was already asleep for the night. So it only ended up being myself along with Joey and his two friends Andy & Jake. Something about getting around a fire is so welcoming to me, makes for a good time to gather around, bust open some brews and shoot the breeze, which was what we did for about a good four hours. Need to do that more often nowadays.
-As usual, have been playing a ton of Rock Band lately. Had a good run with Scott and Chris in our Band Tour a couple weekends ago where we completed all the gigs for a sixth city. Chris and I picked up our Band Tour again a couple nights ago and we reached the last gig in New York City, the 18-song East Coast Marathon, where have to to perform each song at least on Hard difficulty. Chris and I actually made some good progress and 4 and 5 starred a lot of the songs, but on track 13 we got stuck on that damn Molly Hatchet song and repeatedly failed several times in a row before finally throwing in the towl. Damn you Molly Hatchet! As a result, I started up Hard solo tour in Rock Band and am determined to plow through that so I can tweak my laughable skills at the game.
-As far as what else I have been playing, I had a good session with Eternal Sonata yesterday. 20 hours in now, and I finished up Act 4 (of 6). I finally got around to trying Mario Kart Wii for the first time over at Chris's. Hate the straight-up Wii-mote motion control scheme, but attaching a nunchuck made it far more functional. Nice to see motorcycles and now up to 12 racers on the track also. Richard and Paul came over a couple nights ago and we threw down in some traditional local multiplayer of Halo 3 and Smackdown vs RAW 2008. Richard somehow won all the matches we played, and he did it by picking some of the worst wrestlers in the game such as the Great Khali, and he said he never even played the game before. I'm starting to slowly take like SvR08 again, after initially being severely disappointed with it.
-Finally since my last blog we have recorded not one, not two, but 3 podcasts! We are at an all time high of 7 straight weeks with a show. Recording the 3DO retrospective was a hoot. We threw in all of my 15 3DO games before the show briefly (except for Twisted which was so damn fun we completed a whole game, which I won by the way!), with many sucking it up big time, but several providing some decent times like Road Rash, Gex, Return Fire, and Twisted. awesomeness and Reviews go nuts! On the other shows we finally got around to recording a belated roundtable review for GTAIV, and we also did a mini-E3 preview. If you haven't checked them out yet, head to the new site for our show at ontappodcast.com and please give us a try.
-That wraps another insanely long entry from me. If you managed to read it all the way through, then my hat is off to you!
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