Tuesday, November 01, 2011
-Hello everybody! It has been another crazy past month, and I am just missing my usual monthly update by one day. Past month has been crazy because a little over a month ago, the owners of the apartment building installed new bathroom windows for everyone, and they look nicer and newer than the cruddy old ones we had before. Everything was great with the new windows for a couple weeks until all of sudden,about once or twice a day these odd big shaped, seemingly half devloped, slow-as-hell flies started appearing and hanging around said new window. I had no idea how they were getting in, and I even called maintenance and had him take a look at it, and he said they were a special hibernating kind of fly called Blueflints or something to that effect.
Good news, they were easy and slow enough to kill and after a few weeks they stopped showing up because it started to get cold outside. Bad news, maintenance man said the flies were not too much of an issue at this point to call an exterminator and to just keep swatting away at them for the time being. Not that this is a huge deal or anything, but I have been debating to moving into a new place for the last couple of years, and this is probably the impetus I needed to get things in motion. I am now counting down the days for my lease to end on May 1st.
Flies aside, it has been pretty hectic with a bunch of other things going on this past month like at least several family related birthdays and helping a couple people move. Early on in the month I did go with my dad and sister Ann and her kid Carter on a fun hike through the Rydell Wildlife Refuge. Like I wrote about earlier when we went there a couple months back it started to rain about ten minutes after we started hiking. This time though we went on a gorgeous day in early October (actually all of October was unusually warm for North Dakota). It was a fun time, and we even did a little BBQ out there too. It definitely helped get my mind off my Ranger that was out for repairs yet again.
-Got Halloween off for the first time in awhile. Ended up going to Fargo and hanging out with Matt and his buddy Corey. Had the epic Famous Dave feast platter between the three of us. Had a great time in Fargo and listened to a ton of good road tunes off Matt's "Project Awesome" MP3 CD collection. When we got back we were planning on doing a marathon of Halloween movies and get a few drinks in us, but Matt was fading fast and he nodded off a few times throughout the classic, Leprechaun so we had to call the night a little. Been forever since I have seen that film, and upon second viewing I had no idea it took place in North Dakota.
A few days earlier I also happened to be in Fargo for an Everclear concert. It was the fourth time I have seen them, and I was a little trepid going to see them because they were playing in a tent in the parking lot of a cigar bar. Luckily, it was not as small scale as I thought and they crammed a bunch of people in there. I met up with Steve's buddy Brett I went to a few concerts with before and we found a great spot at the front of the show. I believe I was only about 20 feet away from the band. Opener was a local cover band that played some good and bad tunes, but I think there must have been some technical difficulties because it took nearly an hour to set up for Everclear, and so they only ended up playing for an hour. It was still a hell of an hour and they probably played better than I recall seeing them before, but it just went way too fast.
-A few weeks back Paul, Jim, Mike and my brother and I all met up for one of our epic Risk match-ups. I believe this was one of the few times we ever went at it in a five player free for all match. We all had it in for Mike since he won the past two times and unfortunately he went out early just four or five turns in. There was not another elimination for awhile, and I ended up subsequently knocking out my brother and Jim. My luck did not last all night though and ultimately it was Paul who got the win in the end! Still, it was another great night of Risk awesomeness.
-For films and television, I took it pretty easy for October, but still watched a few things amidst it all. I caught the first four episodes of new season of The Office. Show still has its trademark charm, but I miss Michael Scott! Also saw my first episode of Parks & Recreation, and after I got over a few cringe-worthy moments and the fact it was shot exactly like The Office, I was started to like it towards the end. For films, I caught the MMA film Warrior which had some good highs and lows and great fight, but just a few too many Hollywood cliches for me.
I saw Courageous with my dad, and we both loved it. Acting was not the greatest, but as my dad put it, it was a tearjerker, and that is saying something because I cannot recall a single thing that caused my dad to tear up before. But it was a damn great movie about finding faith to persevere through difficult life situations, and you just do no see too many of them anymore in this increasing secular world. Finally, I saw Seven Pounds and Red State from Netflix. Seven Pounds is exceptional, and Will Smith is brilliant throughout it. Red State.....not so much. Kevin Smith just cannot get into a comfortable groove outside his element, and I still cannot believe this is classified as a horror movie, as it is anything but.
-For gaming, I have been playing too damn much lately. Too many games coming out. Target just had to have a buy two get one free sale going on when I went to "just" pick up Uncharted 3 and ended up walking out with Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Rage as well. Zen has been putting out a ton of good pinball tables lately and I managed to snatch up all of them like I usually do. Former PS3 tables Paranormal and Sorcerer's Lair are now on 360! On XBLA I started playing Crimson Alliance and made quite a bit of progress playing through it online with Jarrod. Fun little hack 'n slash that plays like Diablo, but without the ton of loot and quest micromanagement seen in other dungeon crawlers. Also played a little over half of the awesome Renegade Ops with Dave in local coop. Dave was up visiting before getting his first orders from the Air Force and I had a blast tearing it up in this Nuclear Strike-esque shooter from the guys who made Just Cause.
On the DS side of things, after five months I finally finished Last Window on DS. A great sequel to the fantastic Hotel Dusk in every way. You will probably have to import this to track it down because it never got a North American release. I started 999 as my next DS game and am already a few hours into it and already loving the Saw/Battle Royal-esque story.
You think taking five months to finish Last Window was bad, well how about taking five and a half years to finish the core story to Oblivion. I picked it up again, using the upcoming release of Skyrim as the impetus to finish Oblivion. Finally got done closing those last few Oblivion gates and going through Paradise, and am now finishing off Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood faction quests hopefully in time for Skyrim. Oblivion is a little rough around the edges this far after the fact, but still a great game. Last game I finished in October was the first episode of Telltale Games' episodic release of Back to the Future on PS3. They just released a box retail release of this recently, and if you have been digging the new adventure games Telltale has been pumping out for Sam & Max, Wallace & Grommit then you will most likely dig this.
I have been playing far too much of Gears 3 since it came out. I ended up writing a pretty thorough review for it you can check out here. Found a few coworkers and friends I have been playing with regularly and have been trying to plow through the campaign on insane and playing Horde and online deathmatch a bit too.
Last thing concerning games I want to talk about was Extra Life charity drive experience for this year which transpired a couple weeks back. It is where I stay up 24 hours and play games so I can raise money for cancer research. We outdid what we raised last year by about $50, so huzzah! Played a ton of games throughout and luckily had quite a few friends stop by to help keep me up. Matt stopped by first and helped me with No Mercy and Superman on N64. Joe and Jake then stopped by and we played a bit of Gears 3 on 360. Then Dave and Dick stopped by and we played a ton of WWE All-Stars and Smackdown vs. RAW. Later Dave popped in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and we all watched him play through about the first hour of that. For one of our benchmarks for donations, I vowed to play what critics called the scariest game out there with Amnesia: Dark Descent on PC. It definitely gave me a few chills for the hour and a half I played it. Rounded off the day playing more Gears 3 with Chris and Lyzz, NCAA Football 12 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. By the end I was ready to pass out, but thank goodness Matt stopped by again for final couple of hours to help me power through it.
-So how about them 49ers. I never thought I would see them start off another season at 6-1 ever again. 2003-2010 was rough as a Niners, and I have no idea how Jim Harbaugh turned around mostly the same star players of last year who could not even win the horrible NFC West last year into one of the best teams in the league today. A few weeks I have been catching football at Gilly's with Joe and his buddy Jake and we have been indulging in their terrific 25 cent wing and five dollar beer pitchers sale.
-Ok, I am finally done. I wanted to make this a shorter than usual blog, but that has been pretty much impossible the past few years. Later!
Good news, they were easy and slow enough to kill and after a few weeks they stopped showing up because it started to get cold outside. Bad news, maintenance man said the flies were not too much of an issue at this point to call an exterminator and to just keep swatting away at them for the time being. Not that this is a huge deal or anything, but I have been debating to moving into a new place for the last couple of years, and this is probably the impetus I needed to get things in motion. I am now counting down the days for my lease to end on May 1st.
Flies aside, it has been pretty hectic with a bunch of other things going on this past month like at least several family related birthdays and helping a couple people move. Early on in the month I did go with my dad and sister Ann and her kid Carter on a fun hike through the Rydell Wildlife Refuge. Like I wrote about earlier when we went there a couple months back it started to rain about ten minutes after we started hiking. This time though we went on a gorgeous day in early October (actually all of October was unusually warm for North Dakota). It was a fun time, and we even did a little BBQ out there too. It definitely helped get my mind off my Ranger that was out for repairs yet again.
-Got Halloween off for the first time in awhile. Ended up going to Fargo and hanging out with Matt and his buddy Corey. Had the epic Famous Dave feast platter between the three of us. Had a great time in Fargo and listened to a ton of good road tunes off Matt's "Project Awesome" MP3 CD collection. When we got back we were planning on doing a marathon of Halloween movies and get a few drinks in us, but Matt was fading fast and he nodded off a few times throughout the classic, Leprechaun so we had to call the night a little. Been forever since I have seen that film, and upon second viewing I had no idea it took place in North Dakota.
A few days earlier I also happened to be in Fargo for an Everclear concert. It was the fourth time I have seen them, and I was a little trepid going to see them because they were playing in a tent in the parking lot of a cigar bar. Luckily, it was not as small scale as I thought and they crammed a bunch of people in there. I met up with Steve's buddy Brett I went to a few concerts with before and we found a great spot at the front of the show. I believe I was only about 20 feet away from the band. Opener was a local cover band that played some good and bad tunes, but I think there must have been some technical difficulties because it took nearly an hour to set up for Everclear, and so they only ended up playing for an hour. It was still a hell of an hour and they probably played better than I recall seeing them before, but it just went way too fast.
-A few weeks back Paul, Jim, Mike and my brother and I all met up for one of our epic Risk match-ups. I believe this was one of the few times we ever went at it in a five player free for all match. We all had it in for Mike since he won the past two times and unfortunately he went out early just four or five turns in. There was not another elimination for awhile, and I ended up subsequently knocking out my brother and Jim. My luck did not last all night though and ultimately it was Paul who got the win in the end! Still, it was another great night of Risk awesomeness.
-For films and television, I took it pretty easy for October, but still watched a few things amidst it all. I caught the first four episodes of new season of The Office. Show still has its trademark charm, but I miss Michael Scott! Also saw my first episode of Parks & Recreation, and after I got over a few cringe-worthy moments and the fact it was shot exactly like The Office, I was started to like it towards the end. For films, I caught the MMA film Warrior which had some good highs and lows and great fight, but just a few too many Hollywood cliches for me.
I saw Courageous with my dad, and we both loved it. Acting was not the greatest, but as my dad put it, it was a tearjerker, and that is saying something because I cannot recall a single thing that caused my dad to tear up before. But it was a damn great movie about finding faith to persevere through difficult life situations, and you just do no see too many of them anymore in this increasing secular world. Finally, I saw Seven Pounds and Red State from Netflix. Seven Pounds is exceptional, and Will Smith is brilliant throughout it. Red State.....not so much. Kevin Smith just cannot get into a comfortable groove outside his element, and I still cannot believe this is classified as a horror movie, as it is anything but.
-For gaming, I have been playing too damn much lately. Too many games coming out. Target just had to have a buy two get one free sale going on when I went to "just" pick up Uncharted 3 and ended up walking out with Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Rage as well. Zen has been putting out a ton of good pinball tables lately and I managed to snatch up all of them like I usually do. Former PS3 tables Paranormal and Sorcerer's Lair are now on 360! On XBLA I started playing Crimson Alliance and made quite a bit of progress playing through it online with Jarrod. Fun little hack 'n slash that plays like Diablo, but without the ton of loot and quest micromanagement seen in other dungeon crawlers. Also played a little over half of the awesome Renegade Ops with Dave in local coop. Dave was up visiting before getting his first orders from the Air Force and I had a blast tearing it up in this Nuclear Strike-esque shooter from the guys who made Just Cause.
On the DS side of things, after five months I finally finished Last Window on DS. A great sequel to the fantastic Hotel Dusk in every way. You will probably have to import this to track it down because it never got a North American release. I started 999 as my next DS game and am already a few hours into it and already loving the Saw/Battle Royal-esque story.
You think taking five months to finish Last Window was bad, well how about taking five and a half years to finish the core story to Oblivion. I picked it up again, using the upcoming release of Skyrim as the impetus to finish Oblivion. Finally got done closing those last few Oblivion gates and going through Paradise, and am now finishing off Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood faction quests hopefully in time for Skyrim. Oblivion is a little rough around the edges this far after the fact, but still a great game. Last game I finished in October was the first episode of Telltale Games' episodic release of Back to the Future on PS3. They just released a box retail release of this recently, and if you have been digging the new adventure games Telltale has been pumping out for Sam & Max, Wallace & Grommit then you will most likely dig this.
I have been playing far too much of Gears 3 since it came out. I ended up writing a pretty thorough review for it you can check out here. Found a few coworkers and friends I have been playing with regularly and have been trying to plow through the campaign on insane and playing Horde and online deathmatch a bit too.
Last thing concerning games I want to talk about was Extra Life charity drive experience for this year which transpired a couple weeks back. It is where I stay up 24 hours and play games so I can raise money for cancer research. We outdid what we raised last year by about $50, so huzzah! Played a ton of games throughout and luckily had quite a few friends stop by to help keep me up. Matt stopped by first and helped me with No Mercy and Superman on N64. Joe and Jake then stopped by and we played a bit of Gears 3 on 360. Then Dave and Dick stopped by and we played a ton of WWE All-Stars and Smackdown vs. RAW. Later Dave popped in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and we all watched him play through about the first hour of that. For one of our benchmarks for donations, I vowed to play what critics called the scariest game out there with Amnesia: Dark Descent on PC. It definitely gave me a few chills for the hour and a half I played it. Rounded off the day playing more Gears 3 with Chris and Lyzz, NCAA Football 12 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. By the end I was ready to pass out, but thank goodness Matt stopped by again for final couple of hours to help me power through it.
-So how about them 49ers. I never thought I would see them start off another season at 6-1 ever again. 2003-2010 was rough as a Niners, and I have no idea how Jim Harbaugh turned around mostly the same star players of last year who could not even win the horrible NFC West last year into one of the best teams in the league today. A few weeks I have been catching football at Gilly's with Joe and his buddy Jake and we have been indulging in their terrific 25 cent wing and five dollar beer pitchers sale.
-Ok, I am finally done. I wanted to make this a shorter than usual blog, but that has been pretty much impossible the past few years. Later!
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