Monday, December 29, 2008
-Belated Merry Christmas one and all! The weather has been nasty as hell lately, with our local news reporting record amounts of snowfalls in years this winter season. Right now it's blustering like mad outside. Other than the crazy snowfall lately, things have been going well. Had a good Christmas, and just checked my final grades for the fall semester and locked in 2 As and a B, so huzzah for that!
-Since Jane and Shawn moved a couple months back, Christmas seemed a little smaller in scale this year. The family did most of the celebrating on Christmas Eve over at my sister Ann's place. Joey actually furnished the fixings that night with a feast of food. We exchanged gifts, and finished the night at Ann's with some Apples to Apples throwdown. I forgot how much fun that game can be. Afterward, Dad and I attended midnight mass, and like last year's midnight mass I had to wake him up as I caught him starting to doze off a few times. After I dropped him off at home, Dick and I met up and we watched the 1973 epic, The Wrestler. Look for my thoughts in my batch of mini-movie reviews below. At this point it was around 5am and we decided to close the night off by recording an episode of our wrestling podcast, (which you can find by clicking here).
After the recording it was around 7 or 7:30am after I dropped Dick off, and yes one should have passed out by now, but I decided to surprise my mom in the morning instead by dropping off her Christmas present in the morning in the form of a new, well used 32" television to replace her one that broke over a year ago. I think I finally passed out from exhaustion around 11am. The rest of Christmas Day wasn't anything too spectacular, more dinner and visiting with the family, and went into work that night. Overall a good Christmas. Here is this year's gift load:
-Luggage locater
-Flannel hoodie
-62 piece flatware set
-Multi-use tool
-Punisher (GameBoy)
-Punisher mouse pad
-Rocky IV wall towel
-PS3 Bluetooth headset
-Speaking of board games like Apples to Apples a little bit above, Paul and Jim swung by last weekend and we contested for global domination in one of my favorite board games, Risk. We actually managed to complete the game in about three hours, which is a new record for me compared to past versions of Risk. Unfortunately I was knocked out first. The luck of the draw forced to me to go with the Americas like I usually almost end up doing, and it worked for a couple round, but I was unable to hold off the brutal attack of Paul's African armies. Had a blast still, because I usually only get around to playing Risk about once or twice a year. After that intense strategic action, we capped the night off with a quick round of Scene It on 360.
-The year is almost up, but I did manage to add one more game to my games beaten list this year, making Metal Slug 7 (DS) game #21 completed this year. Like the past Metal Slug's it took me about an hour and a half to complete. I am still bewildered at the complete lack of two-player support whatsoever, but luckily SNK does grant the user 10 continues and the ability to start off from any level with 10 continues once that level is unlocked.
-Got a good session of Rock Band 2 in with Chris & Liz last night. Instead of trying to play every gig in every venue like we did in the original world tour in the first Rock Band, we're immediately going for venue's that have the next set of goals and we're already gained access to do the Endless Set list 2! So I imagine we'll spend a solid 7-8 hours knocking that out next weekend. Unfortunately for me being an achievement whore, besides rewarding a player for completing the endless set list again, there's a bonus achievement with completing it with no in game pauses whatsoever. Looks like we're going to have to find someone to help rotate in and out with us.
-After being pleasantly surprised at how much I dug the newest Smackdown vs RAW game as I detailed in my last entry, I ended up buying it after catching it on sale for $40. So I've been putting more time into that recently and am still knocking out more of the Road to Wrestlemania careers. Other games I have been playing lately include Pure, which I finally popped in after sitting on my desk for a couple weeks from GameFly. I've only played a few before, but this is the best pure quad racing I have played. All about having fun, and nailing sick tricks for extra turbo. Also threw in Mario & Luigi for the DS for the first time in a couple months. I was enjoying myself again until I came across this freaking evil dark dungeon where you can't see the floors until you die, and then for only a split second which forces me to try and remember the floor plan for bits and pieces. Maybe there's a hidden light switch somewhere, but I was having so much fun until I reached this very not Dale-friendly gameplay moment.
Finally, I threw in the GameBoy version of Punisher I got from my brother for Christmas. Last home videogame version of Punisher I haven't owned yet. The GameBoy version is a tweaked port of the NES version, which now features Spider-Man in the story, yet unfortunately still retains the horrendous on rail shooter gameplay of the NES game. The game is nearly unplayable, and I'm surprised it hasn't been featured on the Angry Videogame Nerd yet. Oh well, at least it completes my collection, now I'm crossing all my fingers in hopes that Sony releases a tangible copy of the upcoming Punisher No Mercy game currently only slated as a downloadable Playstation Network game.
-Another year, another 49ers losing season. The latter half of the season definitely looked up however with the Niners winning 5 of their last 7 games, and now that they announced that they have signed Mike Singletary as the new head coach, I'm very optimistic for how they'll perform next year.
-Currently making a little more progress than usual in my crazy large television and wrestling DVD backlog now that it's winter break. I finished Season 7 of Seinfeld, and wow, what a tragic demise for George's poor fiance. Didn't remember that from my distant memories of the show in syndication, nor do I remember George being engaged to Susan for the entire season, so this season was an amazing watch and they still hold up to this day. Probably my favorite episode of the season was when Seinfeld ended up unintentionally coming off as a pimp. I'm also halfway through the crazy in-depth, 4-disc Ric Flair shoot interview. Very fascinating watch learning about Ric's early years up so far into the beginning stages of the Monday Night War. I discuss more of the first disc in depth in the aforementioned episode of my wrestling podcast.
Speaking of wrestling, let's get on to mini-review time!
The Wrestler - Getting amped up for the upcoming new movie also called, The Wrestler, I decided to finally throw in the 1973 classic starring Verne Gagne as the star wrestler of the promotion, who in 1973 is the aging champion approaching retirement. Other than a few completely random WTF moments, this was actually an entertaining watch, considering how they portray wrestling behind-the-scenes when a lot of the behind-the-scene secrets were taboo for public in 1973. Also dug the cameos of many stars from back in the day too. Like the Ric Flair interview, I discuss this a lot more in my latest wrestling podcast. If you can't wait for that though, you can probably easily track this down online like I did for around $5. A lot of things that are very dated with the cinematography, but I'm going to give this film the benefit of the doubt, and I think I would have especially liked this more back if I saw it in 1973.7.5/10
-Hamlet 2 - Just watched this earlier today, and wow what a clusterfuck of awesome Hamlet 2 is. I watched this with my dad and brother, and my dad described it as raw, yet the raw-ness seemed necessary, which is an assessment I could agree with. I wanted to see this for awhile, mostly to see how far they pushed the envelope, and push they did. The payoff for the "Hamlet 2" musical at the end is largely satisfying for the infamous "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" performance alone. I like those kind of "out there" comedies, and Hamlet 2 delivered on all those fronts. 8/10
-The Last Samurai - Always wanted to see this, but never got around to it, and eventually it just went off my radar after neglecting it for so long. While on the topic of Fable II of all things, it got Paul and I talking about 17th century warfare, and Paul said Last Samurai was a great depiction of it and borrowed me his copy. Can't believe I put this one off for over five years as I find t nearly impossible to nitpick at this film. Loved the battle scenes, superb acting performances by the entire cast, and I was hooked right from the beginning. Being a history nut too also assisted in how well I enjoyed The Last Samurai. What a fantastic film! 10/10
-That wraps up another crazy long entry. Later!
-Since Jane and Shawn moved a couple months back, Christmas seemed a little smaller in scale this year. The family did most of the celebrating on Christmas Eve over at my sister Ann's place. Joey actually furnished the fixings that night with a feast of food. We exchanged gifts, and finished the night at Ann's with some Apples to Apples throwdown. I forgot how much fun that game can be. Afterward, Dad and I attended midnight mass, and like last year's midnight mass I had to wake him up as I caught him starting to doze off a few times. After I dropped him off at home, Dick and I met up and we watched the 1973 epic, The Wrestler. Look for my thoughts in my batch of mini-movie reviews below. At this point it was around 5am and we decided to close the night off by recording an episode of our wrestling podcast, (which you can find by clicking here).
After the recording it was around 7 or 7:30am after I dropped Dick off, and yes one should have passed out by now, but I decided to surprise my mom in the morning instead by dropping off her Christmas present in the morning in the form of a new, well used 32" television to replace her one that broke over a year ago. I think I finally passed out from exhaustion around 11am. The rest of Christmas Day wasn't anything too spectacular, more dinner and visiting with the family, and went into work that night. Overall a good Christmas. Here is this year's gift load:
-Luggage locater
-Flannel hoodie
-62 piece flatware set
-Multi-use tool
-Punisher (GameBoy)
-Punisher mouse pad
-Rocky IV wall towel
-PS3 Bluetooth headset
-Speaking of board games like Apples to Apples a little bit above, Paul and Jim swung by last weekend and we contested for global domination in one of my favorite board games, Risk. We actually managed to complete the game in about three hours, which is a new record for me compared to past versions of Risk. Unfortunately I was knocked out first. The luck of the draw forced to me to go with the Americas like I usually almost end up doing, and it worked for a couple round, but I was unable to hold off the brutal attack of Paul's African armies. Had a blast still, because I usually only get around to playing Risk about once or twice a year. After that intense strategic action, we capped the night off with a quick round of Scene It on 360.
-The year is almost up, but I did manage to add one more game to my games beaten list this year, making Metal Slug 7 (DS) game #21 completed this year. Like the past Metal Slug's it took me about an hour and a half to complete. I am still bewildered at the complete lack of two-player support whatsoever, but luckily SNK does grant the user 10 continues and the ability to start off from any level with 10 continues once that level is unlocked.
-Got a good session of Rock Band 2 in with Chris & Liz last night. Instead of trying to play every gig in every venue like we did in the original world tour in the first Rock Band, we're immediately going for venue's that have the next set of goals and we're already gained access to do the Endless Set list 2! So I imagine we'll spend a solid 7-8 hours knocking that out next weekend. Unfortunately for me being an achievement whore, besides rewarding a player for completing the endless set list again, there's a bonus achievement with completing it with no in game pauses whatsoever. Looks like we're going to have to find someone to help rotate in and out with us.
-After being pleasantly surprised at how much I dug the newest Smackdown vs RAW game as I detailed in my last entry, I ended up buying it after catching it on sale for $40. So I've been putting more time into that recently and am still knocking out more of the Road to Wrestlemania careers. Other games I have been playing lately include Pure, which I finally popped in after sitting on my desk for a couple weeks from GameFly. I've only played a few before, but this is the best pure quad racing I have played. All about having fun, and nailing sick tricks for extra turbo. Also threw in Mario & Luigi for the DS for the first time in a couple months. I was enjoying myself again until I came across this freaking evil dark dungeon where you can't see the floors until you die, and then for only a split second which forces me to try and remember the floor plan for bits and pieces. Maybe there's a hidden light switch somewhere, but I was having so much fun until I reached this very not Dale-friendly gameplay moment.
Finally, I threw in the GameBoy version of Punisher I got from my brother for Christmas. Last home videogame version of Punisher I haven't owned yet. The GameBoy version is a tweaked port of the NES version, which now features Spider-Man in the story, yet unfortunately still retains the horrendous on rail shooter gameplay of the NES game. The game is nearly unplayable, and I'm surprised it hasn't been featured on the Angry Videogame Nerd yet. Oh well, at least it completes my collection, now I'm crossing all my fingers in hopes that Sony releases a tangible copy of the upcoming Punisher No Mercy game currently only slated as a downloadable Playstation Network game.
-Another year, another 49ers losing season. The latter half of the season definitely looked up however with the Niners winning 5 of their last 7 games, and now that they announced that they have signed Mike Singletary as the new head coach, I'm very optimistic for how they'll perform next year.
-Currently making a little more progress than usual in my crazy large television and wrestling DVD backlog now that it's winter break. I finished Season 7 of Seinfeld, and wow, what a tragic demise for George's poor fiance. Didn't remember that from my distant memories of the show in syndication, nor do I remember George being engaged to Susan for the entire season, so this season was an amazing watch and they still hold up to this day. Probably my favorite episode of the season was when Seinfeld ended up unintentionally coming off as a pimp. I'm also halfway through the crazy in-depth, 4-disc Ric Flair shoot interview. Very fascinating watch learning about Ric's early years up so far into the beginning stages of the Monday Night War. I discuss more of the first disc in depth in the aforementioned episode of my wrestling podcast.
Speaking of wrestling, let's get on to mini-review time!
The Wrestler - Getting amped up for the upcoming new movie also called, The Wrestler, I decided to finally throw in the 1973 classic starring Verne Gagne as the star wrestler of the promotion, who in 1973 is the aging champion approaching retirement. Other than a few completely random WTF moments, this was actually an entertaining watch, considering how they portray wrestling behind-the-scenes when a lot of the behind-the-scene secrets were taboo for public in 1973. Also dug the cameos of many stars from back in the day too. Like the Ric Flair interview, I discuss this a lot more in my latest wrestling podcast. If you can't wait for that though, you can probably easily track this down online like I did for around $5. A lot of things that are very dated with the cinematography, but I'm going to give this film the benefit of the doubt, and I think I would have especially liked this more back if I saw it in 1973.7.5/10
-Hamlet 2 - Just watched this earlier today, and wow what a clusterfuck of awesome Hamlet 2 is. I watched this with my dad and brother, and my dad described it as raw, yet the raw-ness seemed necessary, which is an assessment I could agree with. I wanted to see this for awhile, mostly to see how far they pushed the envelope, and push they did. The payoff for the "Hamlet 2" musical at the end is largely satisfying for the infamous "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" performance alone. I like those kind of "out there" comedies, and Hamlet 2 delivered on all those fronts. 8/10
-The Last Samurai - Always wanted to see this, but never got around to it, and eventually it just went off my radar after neglecting it for so long. While on the topic of Fable II of all things, it got Paul and I talking about 17th century warfare, and Paul said Last Samurai was a great depiction of it and borrowed me his copy. Can't believe I put this one off for over five years as I find t nearly impossible to nitpick at this film. Loved the battle scenes, superb acting performances by the entire cast, and I was hooked right from the beginning. Being a history nut too also assisted in how well I enjoyed The Last Samurai. What a fantastic film! 10/10
-That wraps up another crazy long entry. Later!
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