This weekend I went to the zoo with Laura and her parents. I forgot how much I really like going to zoos. I think I could go everyday and still not be bored. Maybe it's that thrill of seeing living things that aren't the same everyday, or the idea that there are all kinds of animals that seem to get by everyday so much easier than humans do. I look forward for my next zoo adventure.

I have decided, after perusing the menus on Pyscho Suzi's webiste, that I'm having a One Eyed Willie on Saturday night. It sounds down right delicious and it comes in a pirate mug which I might just have to purchase. Kudos to Rita for having awesome plans on her special day.

I'm also excited for Friday night. Despite my pale and flabby membrane I am definetly gonna enjoy some time in a hot tub. Plus I get to see my girlfriend in a swimsuit, score!


Later Days
Mike

With all the disease and worry of infection going around I though I'd take time out to say that I hope you all are healthy and stay that way. And as usual I bring regards in the form of a hopeful pick'me'up.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/DarkRealmStudios/pandemic-2

Follow the link to create your very own pandemic! Wanna see how successful the Swine Flu can be go for it! I personally like naming diseases and parasites after celebrities I hate.


Later Days
Mike

Another year has come and gone and now I'm 24. I was surfing around to see what's going on today. The biggest new is pirates (it's the topic of almost every CNN article today) so I guess that's cool. Don Rickles will be on the Tonight Show, Drew Barrymore will be on the Late Show, and Ice-T, Elmo, and the Yeah Yeahs will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. According to G4TV Morgan Webb will be on Late Night as well. Wikipedia's featured article today is the actress Emma Watson. Today is also her birthday as well as famous celebrities like Seth Rogen, Emma Thompson, and Leonardo Da Vinci. So there you go there's the significance of my birthday in a nutshell. As for today I'm gonna get done with work and then probably lay back and enjoy the rest of the day, peacefully.

Later Days
Mike

Score!! My pwns actually mean something! Although I play plenty of non-action games too.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE52S1TW20090329

Found a great strip from XKCD today that personifies my morning ritual, or atleast what I wish I could do. http://www.xkcd.com/562/

For those of you new to the site if you hover them mouse over the strip he adds a little quip as well. It reads "Police reported three dozen cheerful bystanders, yet no one claims to have seen who did it."

Later Days
Mike

This article just got me angry. I hate airline companies so much, the majority of them are run and staffed by people who really don't care about anything but themselves.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693915/Gamer-Sues-Airline-For-A-Million-Bucks-Over-Lost-Xbox.html#readmore

Now I admit this guy's reasoning for the amount of damages should almost be described as ludacrus. I don't care if your Xbox is gold-plated it's not worth $1700. But what kind of shady-ass company won't replace your baggage if it is electronic in nature?! How did that rep not start laughing when she said that?! I won't get into anymore since you'll hopefully be just as angered by this near pirate act. Basically if you have to fly US airlines don't bring anything but carry-on because they are all crooks and cheaters.

Later Days
Mike

Is it just me or is everyone getting taken down by an assortment of viral menaces? Me and three other of my coworkers are sniffing and coughing. Laura is sick, and not even because of me. Why when the weather is finally getting better, do I have to fall ill? Was gonna go out with Adam (the returned) this week though I doubt I'll be well enough. I have a dentist appointment that needs rescheduling, and I probably won't be travelling up to the cities either. Curse you pathogens!!!

DUN DUN DUN...DUN DUN DUN DUN

I got the Halo 3 soundtrack yesterday, and am so excited. I've listened to my favorite musical moment from the game about 20 times now, it's only a couple minutes long but so awesome. In case you don't know based on my awesome dunning, the part is when Master Chief has taken downt he defensive guns and is standing on the clifface overlooking the Ark. a piano dings out a tune which is repeated by an orchesra as the human fleeting roars above him, firing their MAC guns at the Covenant Armada....so cool. Unfourtanetly the song doesn't end in the same coolness as the game. As the Ark fires up there's a power surge and the screen goes black, you hear only Cortana's voice whisper "This is the way the world ends." That would have been so sweet but that's why I keep the trailer on my X-box.

As a final note my brother introduced me to this website group that shows a bunch of funny and cool video game clips from various games. The clips are ususally accompanied by some funny comments from the players as well. The group is called 4 Player Podcast and the webiste is
http://www.justin.tv/fourplayerpodcast


Later Days
Mike

Just a strange strange article. I'm not the most pious person but still.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/01/22/virginity.value/index.html

So I guess The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is going to be the big Oscar winner this year. Normally I don't care (since public opinion of movies has nothing to do with awards), but in this case I was a little miffed. The Dark Knight is only getting one nomination (for Heath Ledger). Benjamin Button has been nominated for 13 awards!! Now I don't know what everyone else heard, but I heard that while the special effects are excellent the story itself doesn't go anywhere and the movie is a little long. But it's still getting acclaimed as a wonderful masterpiece. I'm really sick and tired of movies being made to get awards. You are in the movie industry, movies are meant to entertain people not to win awards!!! I really don't care if the film societies think that Brad Pitt movies are wonderful and delightful, Iron Man rocked my socks off so give John Favereu an award for that!....This is just further proof that we need to purge California...

Later Days
Mike

I got my first taste of that plot that happens every few episodes on Scrubs. That's right I got to check in a woman who happens to be a large donor to the "Foundation." The doctor she was seeing isn't normally here today and came in specially for her on request of a call he got last night from another doctor. Insurance went crazy to make sure we had everything right, she even got a "liason" from the donation group to come and guide her here and help her. The whole time her guide acted like I should be stepping on eggshells and really limited the contact she had with the support staff. Now personally I think this is complete bull. Yes you donate a lot of money to help places around the area, but does that give you beneficial treatment there? I say no. So what say you my friends? Should I really treat the rich and large donaters as VIPs?

Later Days
Mike

I won't get all sentimental or anything with my New Year's post. I'll just say that to all of you who I spent time with this year, thank you for making it through my good times and bad with me. To those who I didn't see much this year, hopefully I will be able to join you this year.

I think I'm taking a page from xckd's author and posing this to you all. With the year of the Rick-Roll coming to a close what will be 2009's craze?

My bet is monkey on a segway, or some other kind of monkey antic....I guess we can only wait and see.

Later Days.
Mike

Once again Christmas was better to me than it should have been. I pulled in a couple seasons of Friends, Tropic Thunder, a KT Tunstall Cd, the ever-popular cash, a gift card to Best-buy, and an actual dining table with chairs (that's right no more card table for this sailor). Everyone was happy with the gifts I got them though so I suppose it's an even trade. In a Christmas miracle I got Itunes working for me again! I'm not sure how or why it would install now but I've never been one to argue providence. Now I just need to pirate all the music I had before....woot.

Laslty, a gift for you Tim Burton fans the trailer for his next movie dropped, it's called 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIpZxBczWUg
For those wondering about the story there is a wiki post http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_(2009_film)

I'm very excited...

Later Days
Mike

I feel as though I must speak about the upcoming film "The Day the Earth Stood Still". I have to say I'm a little disappointed that it's plot has apparently joined the go green band wagon. Though I have not seen the movie yet, I feel inclined to caution against it. If you know of the orginal then you will be disappointed. I think that the changes they made to suit a modern audience takes much away from the movie. Even though I am excited to see Keanu Reeves cast in the cold emotionless role he was built (in a lab) for, I warn you that this movie may indeed suck.

If you take my advice and don't go out to see it, I highly recommend watching Jon Carpenter's The Thing. I watched this classic last night and realized just how creepy and entertaining it can be. Add the fact that we are much more aggressively exploring the pole areas and the ice is melting away and this gets more interesting.

Later Days
Mike

I think I can officially call the Manly-Man Weekend of Manly Proportions a success. The guys showed up Friday night, with Dan getting the prize for being the first one. We sat in for a night of magic the gathering, Gears of War 2, and left 4 dead. The latter Zane and I played from about midnight to 8 in the morning. The next day we resumed the activities with more Magic the Gathering, and a couple manly movies (Hellboy 2 and Zombie Strippers). The nigth ended with some Halo 3 before we craved bedtime. In the morning everyone was gracious enough to help pick up a bit before they left. All and all it was a great time and I look forward to another sometime.

Later Days
Mike

I rented Left 4 Dead on a whim yesterday....yes I shouldn't have because I haven't touched my computer for about a week now but oh well. The concept is really cool, and provided the gameplay is solid how can killing zombies ever grow old?. That being said this game is built for multiplayer and once again we find a great multiplayer that only supports online co-op. I would say I'd buy this game, but for no where near the $60 price tag unless I had a group of friends that would consistently play with me. One thing that others will enjoy is the learning curve, button layout is pretty much the shooter norm and easy mode is laughably so. I only was downed (incapacitated) a couple time due to me being stupid, and my only death occurred when a larger zombie sent me flying off a skyscraper. I'd imagine tougher difficulties would require much better group support and strategy, but fun times are still ahead.


Later Days
Mike

With winter approaching I've bundled myself up in my apartment with all kind of comfort food and video game distractions. Picked up Wrath of the Lich King for World of Warcraft, haven't had a chance to play it though. I've been on a 360 kick the last few days so my MMO's have suffered. I've got Dead Space rented for the week, and I'm already 4 chapters in. The game is a lot of fun. It's creepy, frightnening, and I can't get enough. The only complaint would be that since it's built for HDTV some of the text logs are difficult to read. The moral of the the story, though, is if you have to work on a planet cracking ship don't accidentally uncover a parasitic species.

Gear of War 2 came out as well. I told myself that I would just try to rent it for the first week of December(see below), but as soon as I entered best buy to make another purchase it was there and I couldn't say no. So for the last two day my nights have been spent playing, and Gears rewarded me with a highly entertaining time.

I had a wonderful weekend with Laura last weekend, and hopefully our plans for Thanksgiving works out. I now have two weeks of downtime though until my next big event. The Manly Man Weekend: Of Manly Proportions is all set up for the first weekend of December, so it looks like I'll enjoy seeing a couple of you then. My main though in buying Gears of War 2 was all of you so hopefully we'll all enjoy it.

Well I've gone on long enough...time for lunch.
Later Days
Mike

Since everyone is posting about the election I though I'd hit you all up with a game review to shake things up. I went out and bought Fallout 3 a couple days ago and am enjoying that pleasant cooing it makes as it devours my soul. If any of you are fans of The Elder Scrolls and like future-like environments you'll love Fallout 3. You begin life in one of the many Vaults across the world hiding from the dangers of a post-apocalyptic landscape, but all too soon you find yourself staring across a harsh landscape of fallen buildings and desolate dust. Interaction is much the same style as it was in Elder Scrolls, though the diplomatic ability has been altered from the minigame in Oblivion to a percentage based on points. The character creation and process are both amazing and creative, and classic followers of Bethesda will note that Fallout 3 levels through xp rather than skills increases. The game is amazing in color and animation and keeps things going with fun quests and interactions. This is worth buying for any of you who love RPGs but especially fans of a free-exploring world.

Later Days
Mike

I rented a couple games this past weekend and I thought I'd share my opinion with you awesome folks.

I'll start with Civilization: Revolution. I haven't gotten very far into it but if you've played and of the other Civ games you know what to expect. The game moves a lot faster now, which i prefer, but you still find some dull points in the game as you wait for action to happen. The advisors are a nice touch as is the cool little additons, be it bonuses for getting certain techs first or receiving entertainers from nations as your culture grows. Graphically the game is great, though it's more cartoony Revolution has a more entertaining flair to the graphics than the previous runs. I would recommend this game to Civ fans or anyone who is a fan of Turn based games. If you want something fast paced though it's definetly not the game for you.

Next up...Silent Hill:Homecoming. The 360's first Silent Hill game is pretty good, though I have heard die hard Silent Hill fans might not like it. I thought the graphics were very cool and spooky to boot as is the storyline and cutscenes in the game. Though I didn't get very far I did have a lot of fun with the puzzle based adventuring and the combat. My problems with it could be considered important depending on how good of a thinker you are and your patience. First, the save system is based on find a rune on a wall (savepoint). I have never been a fan of savepoints/checkpoints, I believe you should be able to save where you're at (provided you aren't in combat or in the middle of smething else important). Second, the game doesn't do much to advance you through the game. I wasted a lot of time running around aimlessly because I was given no indication on what to do next. The map only gives your main objective so that's no help either. I would definetly recommend it as a rental (on a dark stormy night) but it's probably not worth the $60 pricetag.

Finally, Spiderman: Web of Shadows was my favorite out of the three. You play as Spiderman (duh) and websling around fighting a mysterious outbreak that's turning people into Venom Symbiotes, and doing missions for superheroes/villians. The best thing about the game is it's good/evil choice based. You can seemlessy transform into the black suit (gaining it's dark powers and tendencies) and the choices you make at critical points decide how you progress in the game and whether heroes or villians shape your choices. The plot line is out of left field but very entertaining, and I wasted hours just webslinging around fighting crimes. The graphics are great and so is the combat/movement system. My only complaints would be that Spidey's voice is annoying, and there is really no good way to quickly transistion between webslinging and wallcrawling as opposed to other Spidey titles. I will probably buy this game because hey it's me, but I think that if you don't like Spiderman as much as I do it's atleast worth the rent.

Later Days and Later Games
Mike