Saturday, December 19, 2009
-Hey Yo! I am currently on night four of eight days straight at work. My next night off is Christmas Eve. I may try and get one more blog in by the end of the year, but we will see. Anyone still actually reading this? I have not seen that many comments on here over the last several months.
-I rocked some more karaoke last week at Bucs. Joey, Scott, Dave and Adam rooted me on. The DJ picked two tracks for me - "Click Click Boom" and "I'm a Believer." Think I did a halfway dececnt job on the latter surprisingly. Thinking back, I have done a ridiculous amount of karaoke this year. At least 20 songs, probably at least triple that if you include all the times I rocked the mic in Rock Band and Lips.
-Anyone catch the Slammy Awards edition of RAW this past Monday? I remember staying up late to watch the Slammy Awards when they were their own special the day before Wrestlemania at midnight. I like how they have been incorporated into the three hour RAW specials the past couple of years. Glad to see Jeri-Show best tag team of the year and Sheamus as Breakout Star. How about that Sheamus WWE Title win by the way? I think he beat Brock Lesnar's record for fastest rise to the WWE Title. See how it plays out I guess, and hopefully Sheamus will prove himself worthy to be in the main event scene.
-All this wrestling talk makes me want to shill the newest episode of the Cheap Pop. That is right, we did another show and it only was two weeks between shows this time around, not five months. Dave and I recap the Slammys, and also discuss some of our all time favorite entrance themes and much more. Click here to download. May as well plug the newest episode of On Tap while I am shamelessly shilling, show 112 is now up. This episode I deliver my three year belated review for Phoenix Wright: Justice For All on the DS, as well as my critique of the latest and greatest from Uwe Boll with FarCry, and reviews for Forza III and Beatles: Rock Band from Chris and Lyzz. Click here to listen and download.
-Almost a 100 pages into the new Mass Effect novel, Ascension. I was not as into it in the opening few chapters as I was in Revelation, since the latter really reeled me in right away with the origins of humanity in Citadel space and was filled with a lot more intensity throughout. After several chapters however, the story is finally clicking with me in Ascension, which so far is setting up a big betrayl and I am itching to see how it culminates. I have to make more time for reading and catch up on my books then strictly reading at plasma only. I think I will have to take a weekend off to spend in a hotel or at a lake out of town and do nothing, but nonstop read. Does that sound crazy, or anyone ever try something like that before? I got the idea after hearing a podcaster mention he does that every summer, and it sounds like it could be a nice relaxful getaway for a weekend.
-I went to Fargo with Matt last weekend to pick up tickets for an upcoming WWE live event. It usually is a lot cheaper picking them up at the venue, then getting saddled on nearly $10 worth of "convenience charges." Matt goes to Fargo every couple of weeks anyways to check out a lot of stores there since he is a hardcore figure collector. So I checked out his usual round of stores with him. I am not one for figure collecting, but cannot help but check out wrestling figures. I own several, and ended up buying two more that day. A classic line Bill Goldberg figure, and one for my favorite WWE midcarders of all time - Steve Blackman! Never thought I would see the day he would get his own figure after all these years. No Kendo Sticks were included though!
-Here is a quick mini-review for Everybody's Fine - Robert Deniro is an elderly and recently widowed father. He was looking forward to his four children visiting him like 'ol times, but they all mysteriously cancel at the last minute. So Deniro decides to take a last second trip and surprise them all across the country and see what the hell is up. I am recapping the story here, because apparently no one saw this in its theatrical run and it was out of theaters within two weeks here. I absolutely loved this movie, and it would probably place in the top two or three flicks of the year for me. I loved the pacing of this film, and it just clicked for me. It nailed what any family drama should set out to achieve, which is get a gut reaction out of you and make you think of your own. This being a really powerfuly film too did not hurt either. Go see this now! 10/10
-Still plowing through Entourage, and enjoying the hell out of it. I think for me I am really getting most of the characters, and most of them seem original enough, or not too stereotypical of what I thought they would be for me to care a lot about them and see what happens next. Awaiting disc two of season three, part one from Netflix. I still have a lot more television shows in my TV DVD backlog, and others I am trying to watch concurrently too via Hulu and Instant Netflix streaming. I only have a few episodes left of Man vs. Food, a show I randomly chanced on Netflix streaming solely because of the name and have turned several friends onto since. I am also two episodes through the first season of Veronica Mars (why did I hold off so long on watching this show!?). Joey also stopped by last weekend and brought over some of his Psych DVDs, and we watched a couple episodes of that. I was familiar with the show from seeing ads and catching bits and pieces before, but now that I took in two shows I am hooked and want more! Gaaaaah!
I am also keeping up with the newest episodes of the Office through Hulu, and am mighty curious to see what is in store for the future of Dunder/Mifflin. Could it be the last season of The Office? I know it is the last season of Lost once it starts up in February. My co-worker Paul told me how he finally got around to watching the season 5 finale, and we had a good discussion of its events and the crazy amount of mysteries it finally answered right from the get go. If ABC took the time to chronologically produce and re-release the Lost DVDs from beginning to end, I am talking about timestamping and putting in a timeline order of all the flashbacks and flash forwards and all the jumping around Time Travel craziness, I would definitely open my wallet for that alternative viewing experience. I know some events would not make any sense at all watching in that pattern since it was not how ABC intended, but it would be a great way to take in all of Lost one more time.
-The year is almost over, so I am trying to really ramp up my games beaten list for the year. Since my last blog, I have beaten games 31-35 for 2009, and am still working on a few more before the end of the year! #32 belongs to Wet, rented it again after nearly giving up on one insanely frustrating level halfway through! #33 goes to Shadow Complex. Picked that up again after leaving off halfway through a few months ago, and beat it within a couple weeks and about 9 hours all together. Not bad for a $15 XBLA download game, and a damn good one at that.
#34 goes to AC/DC Live Rock Band, Matt brought it over and we played through the entire 18 song track list in one go. #35 goes to Phoenix Wright: Justice For All on the DS. I picked away at this for the last several months, usually playing 10-15 minutes a few nights a week before passing out. Finally got hooked in the last case and spent the last four to five hours playing it straight. Good thing I already own the next two games in the series and have them ready to start up here soon. Here is a quick list of what else I have been playing to round off my game time.
-Infamous - Fully completed the first island and working my way through the main and side missions of the second. Did everyone here make sure to pick up the free power-up DLC that recently went up on the PS-Store?
-LEGO Rock Band - Matt brought this over, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I thought it would be a quick rush job to milk the Rock Band license. I am digging the soundtrack, and the special challenge missions that have a special dedicated music video playing in the background are a hoot to watch. I am looking at you "Ghostbusters!"
-Zen Pinball/Williams Pinball - More of the usual pinball crack. I am at 150 achievement points now in Williams Collection.
-Frogger Returns - Quick and easy remake of the original, quick and easy PS3 trophies.
-Halo 3 - Did some online matchmaking with friends recently for the first time in awhile. Online play still holds up.
-Family Feud 2010 Edition - I am a sucker for Family Feud. It is one of my favorite game shows. The DS version is a faithful and fun representation of the game show I am fortunate to say, with a nice career mode and unlocks too! It is nowhere near the mess of the awful PS2 version released a couple years ago.
-WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010 - Did several bouts of this with Dave and Joey. They slowed general gameplay down a little bit, and countering is much more intuitive now. Looking forward to hopping into the story and creation modes in the future.
-DJ Hero - Got a great deal on this at Gamestop. $40 used! For some reason, it is discounted incredibly low compared to its new price. Figure I would chance it at that price. Played about a dozen mixes so far and went through the tutorials. Learning curve is noticeably higher compared to Guitar Hero. Could be too because I started off on Medium, but after about a dozen or so mixes, I am just now starting to get the hang of it and getting more comfortable with the DJ controller.
-That does it for now, and thus ends another crazy long blog. I will be back for at least one more for 2009, probaby my final tally, end of the year games beaten list for 2009. Peace!
-I rocked some more karaoke last week at Bucs. Joey, Scott, Dave and Adam rooted me on. The DJ picked two tracks for me - "Click Click Boom" and "I'm a Believer." Think I did a halfway dececnt job on the latter surprisingly. Thinking back, I have done a ridiculous amount of karaoke this year. At least 20 songs, probably at least triple that if you include all the times I rocked the mic in Rock Band and Lips.
-Anyone catch the Slammy Awards edition of RAW this past Monday? I remember staying up late to watch the Slammy Awards when they were their own special the day before Wrestlemania at midnight. I like how they have been incorporated into the three hour RAW specials the past couple of years. Glad to see Jeri-Show best tag team of the year and Sheamus as Breakout Star. How about that Sheamus WWE Title win by the way? I think he beat Brock Lesnar's record for fastest rise to the WWE Title. See how it plays out I guess, and hopefully Sheamus will prove himself worthy to be in the main event scene.
-All this wrestling talk makes me want to shill the newest episode of the Cheap Pop. That is right, we did another show and it only was two weeks between shows this time around, not five months. Dave and I recap the Slammys, and also discuss some of our all time favorite entrance themes and much more. Click here to download. May as well plug the newest episode of On Tap while I am shamelessly shilling, show 112 is now up. This episode I deliver my three year belated review for Phoenix Wright: Justice For All on the DS, as well as my critique of the latest and greatest from Uwe Boll with FarCry, and reviews for Forza III and Beatles: Rock Band from Chris and Lyzz. Click here to listen and download.
-Almost a 100 pages into the new Mass Effect novel, Ascension. I was not as into it in the opening few chapters as I was in Revelation, since the latter really reeled me in right away with the origins of humanity in Citadel space and was filled with a lot more intensity throughout. After several chapters however, the story is finally clicking with me in Ascension, which so far is setting up a big betrayl and I am itching to see how it culminates. I have to make more time for reading and catch up on my books then strictly reading at plasma only. I think I will have to take a weekend off to spend in a hotel or at a lake out of town and do nothing, but nonstop read. Does that sound crazy, or anyone ever try something like that before? I got the idea after hearing a podcaster mention he does that every summer, and it sounds like it could be a nice relaxful getaway for a weekend.
-I went to Fargo with Matt last weekend to pick up tickets for an upcoming WWE live event. It usually is a lot cheaper picking them up at the venue, then getting saddled on nearly $10 worth of "convenience charges." Matt goes to Fargo every couple of weeks anyways to check out a lot of stores there since he is a hardcore figure collector. So I checked out his usual round of stores with him. I am not one for figure collecting, but cannot help but check out wrestling figures. I own several, and ended up buying two more that day. A classic line Bill Goldberg figure, and one for my favorite WWE midcarders of all time - Steve Blackman! Never thought I would see the day he would get his own figure after all these years. No Kendo Sticks were included though!
-Here is a quick mini-review for Everybody's Fine - Robert Deniro is an elderly and recently widowed father. He was looking forward to his four children visiting him like 'ol times, but they all mysteriously cancel at the last minute. So Deniro decides to take a last second trip and surprise them all across the country and see what the hell is up. I am recapping the story here, because apparently no one saw this in its theatrical run and it was out of theaters within two weeks here. I absolutely loved this movie, and it would probably place in the top two or three flicks of the year for me. I loved the pacing of this film, and it just clicked for me. It nailed what any family drama should set out to achieve, which is get a gut reaction out of you and make you think of your own. This being a really powerfuly film too did not hurt either. Go see this now! 10/10
-Still plowing through Entourage, and enjoying the hell out of it. I think for me I am really getting most of the characters, and most of them seem original enough, or not too stereotypical of what I thought they would be for me to care a lot about them and see what happens next. Awaiting disc two of season three, part one from Netflix. I still have a lot more television shows in my TV DVD backlog, and others I am trying to watch concurrently too via Hulu and Instant Netflix streaming. I only have a few episodes left of Man vs. Food, a show I randomly chanced on Netflix streaming solely because of the name and have turned several friends onto since. I am also two episodes through the first season of Veronica Mars (why did I hold off so long on watching this show!?). Joey also stopped by last weekend and brought over some of his Psych DVDs, and we watched a couple episodes of that. I was familiar with the show from seeing ads and catching bits and pieces before, but now that I took in two shows I am hooked and want more! Gaaaaah!
I am also keeping up with the newest episodes of the Office through Hulu, and am mighty curious to see what is in store for the future of Dunder/Mifflin. Could it be the last season of The Office? I know it is the last season of Lost once it starts up in February. My co-worker Paul told me how he finally got around to watching the season 5 finale, and we had a good discussion of its events and the crazy amount of mysteries it finally answered right from the get go. If ABC took the time to chronologically produce and re-release the Lost DVDs from beginning to end, I am talking about timestamping and putting in a timeline order of all the flashbacks and flash forwards and all the jumping around Time Travel craziness, I would definitely open my wallet for that alternative viewing experience. I know some events would not make any sense at all watching in that pattern since it was not how ABC intended, but it would be a great way to take in all of Lost one more time.
-The year is almost over, so I am trying to really ramp up my games beaten list for the year. Since my last blog, I have beaten games 31-35 for 2009, and am still working on a few more before the end of the year! #32 belongs to Wet, rented it again after nearly giving up on one insanely frustrating level halfway through! #33 goes to Shadow Complex. Picked that up again after leaving off halfway through a few months ago, and beat it within a couple weeks and about 9 hours all together. Not bad for a $15 XBLA download game, and a damn good one at that.
#34 goes to AC/DC Live Rock Band, Matt brought it over and we played through the entire 18 song track list in one go. #35 goes to Phoenix Wright: Justice For All on the DS. I picked away at this for the last several months, usually playing 10-15 minutes a few nights a week before passing out. Finally got hooked in the last case and spent the last four to five hours playing it straight. Good thing I already own the next two games in the series and have them ready to start up here soon. Here is a quick list of what else I have been playing to round off my game time.
-Infamous - Fully completed the first island and working my way through the main and side missions of the second. Did everyone here make sure to pick up the free power-up DLC that recently went up on the PS-Store?
-LEGO Rock Band - Matt brought this over, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I thought it would be a quick rush job to milk the Rock Band license. I am digging the soundtrack, and the special challenge missions that have a special dedicated music video playing in the background are a hoot to watch. I am looking at you "Ghostbusters!"
-Zen Pinball/Williams Pinball - More of the usual pinball crack. I am at 150 achievement points now in Williams Collection.
-Frogger Returns - Quick and easy remake of the original, quick and easy PS3 trophies.
-Halo 3 - Did some online matchmaking with friends recently for the first time in awhile. Online play still holds up.
-Family Feud 2010 Edition - I am a sucker for Family Feud. It is one of my favorite game shows. The DS version is a faithful and fun representation of the game show I am fortunate to say, with a nice career mode and unlocks too! It is nowhere near the mess of the awful PS2 version released a couple years ago.
-WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010 - Did several bouts of this with Dave and Joey. They slowed general gameplay down a little bit, and countering is much more intuitive now. Looking forward to hopping into the story and creation modes in the future.
-DJ Hero - Got a great deal on this at Gamestop. $40 used! For some reason, it is discounted incredibly low compared to its new price. Figure I would chance it at that price. Played about a dozen mixes so far and went through the tutorials. Learning curve is noticeably higher compared to Guitar Hero. Could be too because I started off on Medium, but after about a dozen or so mixes, I am just now starting to get the hang of it and getting more comfortable with the DJ controller.
-That does it for now, and thus ends another crazy long blog. I will be back for at least one more for 2009, probaby my final tally, end of the year games beaten list for 2009. Peace!
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