from my siblings

Current Mood: anxious

What I’m Watching

• How I Met Your Mother (season 4)
  
• preseason football (Bengals, Packers)
• Top Shot
  

What I’m Reading

• Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne
  
• Chad: i Can't Be Stopped by Paul Daughtery
  

What I’m Listening To

• Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
• Airbourne - Runnin' Wild
• various hair metal bands (Winger, Warrant, Firehouse)
  

What I’m Playing

• Resident Evil 5
• Burnout: Paradise City
  
• Entanglement
  

…I’d love to hear yours!

source material

Current Mood: peeved

Growing up I was always a Nintendo kid - NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gamecube, and later Wii were the only systems I ever played at home. It wasn't until I got to college (or visited a friend) that I was exposed to Playstations or XBoxes and the like. I never really played a wide variety of computer games, either, since the family computer really couldn't handle them and I didn't get my own computer until college - the one I'm typing on right now. Still, I watched movies and cartoons based on video game franchises, ate cereal with video game shaped bits, and bought video game toys - and those sorts of things had less company loyalty, or at least smaller entry fees.

Still, I was surprised that I recognized so many of these - The Video Game Periodic Chart . How many do you know?

arguably the best summary ever

Current Mood: summer is slipping away...

I've been slackin' on my goal to post once a week here.

Part of that was the early part of the month - I helped Jenny move from Hillenbrand to her new place, and then I moved out of both my old apt. and Earhart into my new place. Many thanks to everybody that helped.

I'm glad that's over, because it felt like a solid week of moving, and the furniture especially sucked to move. I guess I'd underestimated how much stuff I really left back at the old place. That's even with a concerted effort not to keep a lot of things, and even still it was a lot!

I'm more or less all settled in my new place, and it's really nice - a lot of that is just more space, but also the pool, laundry room, more a/c. Greg and I are hangin' all the time (I even have gotten him hooked on RE4) and it looks like it will be a blast living together. I have a slight suspicion that there's a bug infestation in a nearby apartment, but hopefully that's just me being paranoid.


Still need to get my registration and loans goin'...


The other big part of August so far has been Jenny and I's trip to Green Bay. Jenny posted pictures and kinda chronicled everything here: 1 2 3


We left Sunday morning and forgot about the time change driving through Chicago. I'm technically from Cincy, but I really am not a downtown driver. So of course I was terrified to navigate my way to my friend [from improv long ago] Scott's house in the heart of the city. Still, it was a Sunday afternoon and despite a few slow moments and a few tolls, we made it okay. I'll go ahead and mention here the weather was gorgeous the entire time.

Side note: later I want to take a trip to Chicago and get a CityPass because pretty much all of the stuff I want to do and see there is a nerdy museum of some kind. Also, the pass is good for 9 days, so it'll be a big expensive trip.

Had a great time with Scott and his girlfriend Allison. We walked like, 2 miles, trying to find Giordano's Pizza - in part because it's Stu's favorite chain, in part because I'd never had authentic deep dish. This was also my first time to Chicago, despite living 2 hours away for 4 years. After stuffing myself, we rode the 'L' into downtown Chicago (the whole time I kept fantasizing about skipping a day of school to see the sights, making dozens of police cars chase me all over town, and then hunting down the one armed man - and if I was very lucky, seeing Janitor [bonus points to anybody who got that one]).

An eerily quiet Chicago downtown awaited us. We saw the Magnificent Mile (why is it magnificent? because of shopping, apparently, not because of grisly murders), Sears Tower (from the ground), and the street they filmed some of The Dark Knight on. Took pictures at the Bean (sigh). Later that night Scott made us pot roast and we watched a bit of vintage Ah-nold.

The next day we drove to Green Bay. The drive up was pretty uneventful, even if Milwaukee was 50x bigger than I thought it would be (I guess when the only idea of Wisconsin I have is from That 70's Show, I kinda imagined the whole state looked like Eric Forman's house).

Green Bay The City is awesome. The whole town is just like you think - everybody there has a cute almost Canadian accent (mostly it's the drawn out "o"s) and a Favre jersey, even with all the crazy shit that's been going on with him being traded to the Jets. I watched Jenny buy a ton of Packers stuff she's been wanting for a long time, 'cuz it's cheaper/only found there.

Every fan we met there was super nice. Granted, it's not like the Bengals and Packers are hard-core division rivals, but basically it was nothing but smiles and waves. I got to try more local food: butter burgers, cheese curds, and a real bratwurst. Fantastic. My first NFL game was at historic Lambeau, and it was really pretty amazing, like any old stadium should be.

Our sign ("We drove 8 hours to get here, and the loser pays gas!") made some people laugh, but it didn't get us on TV. Oh well. Turns out the family behind us drove 18 hours from Montana, anyway, so it didn't seem so impressive. Plus it was a lie...beforehand we decided that I'd buy tickets, Jenny would buy gas. Yes, that's right, I lied to try to get on the Jumbotron.

Speaking of tickets, our seats were on the 20 yard line-ish, and the view was about the same as Ross-Ade watching the Boilermakers, that is to say pretty decent. The preseason game doesn't count for anything, but it was awesome to see our teams actually playing, tackling, passing, and kicking against each other. Bengals won 20-17, and I was happy to see Aaron Rodgers take over the Packers offense without Favre and do a good job. The drunkest fans we saw were middle aged schoolteachers sitting in the row in front of us. Odd.

The next part of the trip started right after the game. We drove about an hour and a half West of GB to a little town called Waupaca to stay with Jenny's aunt and uncle. They were really nice and drove us around the area to show us some parks and lakes and take us out to eat. Uncle Dennis had an amazing vinyl collection that I went really crazy for. Like for all of Jenny's family, I turned up the charm hoping they would like me. Like all of Jenny's family, I think it worked :D

Unlike the 2-day trip up, we drove back all in one day on Wednesday. We covered close to 400 miles. The rest stop was in Pleasant Prairie (right near the southern WI border) to take a tour of the Jelly Belly factory. Seriously, we only stopped here to stretch our legs, but it was a fun stop. Bought some JB irregulars ("Belly Flops") and some caffeinated "sport beans". The next "stop" was rush-hour Chicago. Seriously...close to 3 hours to go like, 60 miles, and I think we spent 20 dollars in tolls. In retrospect, FUCK toll roads. We drove s'more and had a nice dinner with Benji and Corrie in Valpo (and found a sweet water park for next year).

Whew. Next up: Judas Priest concert on Tuesday.

forecast

Current Mood: pensive

I'm not a fan of laundry list posts, but this is more for me than anybody. Plus I just rolled out a survey post, which is pretty lame too. Deal :D

So it's about halfway through June, which means summer is approximately half over for me.

Finals ended Saturday, May 3rd. As soon as I was done with all my finals and a paper, I left Purdue. Jenny and I went to Cincinnati for about a week, went to Union Terminal to see Bodies (the Exhibition) and went to a Red's game. Then I came back and moved into Earhart, and had a week of straight training before jumping right into work. Since then I've beaten Metroid Prime: Corruption and read some books I've wanted to for a while (mostly stuff I put off during the school year). I went to Joey Steenbergen's wedding, and Benji & Corrie's wedding reception. My 22nd birthday came and went. I performed a special summer improv show for Earhart Hall summer school residents with most of the SoF. I've gone to see Iron Man and Indy 4. I've posed as a model for a Purdue brochure. I stopped biting my fingernails! I've kept up on my goal of posting here and on my other story site at least once a week (but not much more). I have also picked up a few extra hours helping with Day on Campus Tours, but for the most part I've been relaxing and hanging out with my friends that have been here (including a game of the new D&D 4.0 rules).

Pretty busy, I think. I am trying not to waste away my summer, but really relax and not overstress. I need some time to recharge my batteries. Thinking back to last summer, I should've either gotten more rigid deadlines from Dr. D for our research, or seriously considered limiting myself to just either a job, or my fellowship.

So where does that leave me for the rest of the summer? I've got from now until summer "ends" with the start of class- Monday August 25th. As of now:

I have about 25 hours of work every week for most of the rest of that time. I don't know when my last day will be, but the last day I could possibly work is August 8th.

That's also the last day for my current apartment lease, so sometime around there I'll need to move. That means up until then I need to continue whittling down the things I have here at Earhart. Peace has to move out, and I'll have to sort out everything there between me n' Alex. Then between Jenny, probably Greg, and hopefully mom coming to help, I'll move everything out of Earhart and Harrison over to my new apartment on the landing.

Mom wants me to try and go to an airshow July 19 and 20th, but I don't know if I'll be able to get off of work then. Similarly, my favorite holiday (4th of July) is coming up, and I'd like to hang out with everybody near Purdue and watch the fireworks, but I may have to work.

I'd like to go to Ft. Wayne and visit Andy and Jacque, and possibly someplace in Chicago - maybe see Scott? On top of that, Monday August 11th, Jenny and I are thinking about going to Green Bay WI to see the Bengals play the Packers @ Lambeau for the preseason. This may or may not count as our anniversary celebration. :D All of that takes a ton of money and gas is a lot more expensive than past summers, so we'll see. I will probably go home after apartment moving and before classes.

GenCon in mid-August, maybe? Also if I can get the right ticket, maybe a Judas Priest concert with future roommate Greg (how much would that rule?)

I will try and make it through the rest of my pile of books, Beard's comics, and finish at the very least Pokemon Diamond and Super Mario Galaxy. I've also got some computer maintenance to do (clean out bookmarks, clean up music files, etc.) but that's not high priority.

I'm going to make a point to keep posting to my blogs. By my best estimate, I have 14 chapters of my story left until I hit my goal [(50k - current 31,819) / 1300 word/chapter average) = 13.9]. I won't stop until I hit 50k, but I also won't quit until I've told my story. At one chapter/week average, I'll be done in 14 weeks, which means I won't finish before the summer ends. Fine, except my posting rate plummets as school picks up.

I should go give blood again, soon.

The last thing I'm writing about as a goal for the summer directly parallels my feeling about it. Something I've been putting off since the end of school. I need to talk to my counselor and get registered for the fall, and possibly take a summer class for July. Ugh.
Do. Not. Want.

there goes the Rose Bowl

Current Mood: sore

Jenny got me the newest Avenged Sevenfold album and Disney's RocketMan on dvd as anniversary presents (Amazon shipped a few days late). There are probably only a few people reading who understand the significance of the latter gift, but trust me when I say it has been on my wish list for some time.

Yesterday I signed the lease for next year's apartment on the landing with Future Roommates Greg and Chad. I have a feeling that'll be quite a fun living arrangement, considering the wide overlap of interests. While I'm on the subject of apartments, Current Roommate Alex has Gamefly and I've discovered the crazy hedonism that is Elebits. Other games I'm playing (at least casually) are Red Steel and a MegaMan collection, all for the Wii. They probably are at least in part to blame for my novel being behind schedule.

Onto sports!

I will freely admit that football has quickly risen to my top interest amongst sports, and probably is near the top of my interests in general. I also have a minor interest in other sports though, including NASCAR and MLB. The latter of which really isn't too strong - that's more of my dad's thing. Still, I like the Cincinnati Reds and the Florida Marlins, and have an incredible dislike for the New York Yankees, and to a lesser extent the Cleveland Indians. Here's a nice little summary of the Reds in the offseason. Apparently we're having salary problems? Baseball buffs might want to check out 1986: Take Two, a complete simulation of the year of my birth in terms of major league baseball, using statistics and data to build models.

I think that models like this are fascinating, especially when they are reasonably accurate! Madden users have been predicting the outcomes of football games for years, and apparently the high-end ones are good at at least predicting the winner of the game, if not the score.

Purdue lost to Michigan State 48-31. I make no attempt at hiding the fact that I think this is a crock of shit, since they had a crappy record and we should have beaten them soundly. However, I did get to attend the game because my friend Eric (Beard) gave me John (Cowboy)'s ticket since he was out of town. The loss was disappointing, but the company was anything but. We had amazing seats, just nine rows back, and nice fall weather. Beard was enthusiastic and funny, and let me tell you the man can yell like none other.

I'm not a superstitious sports fan by any means, but of Purdue's four losses this season, I've attended both home losses and none of the other games. *shrug* We are now ranked seventh in the Big Ten, with a record of 3-4 conference, 7-4 all. Our final game this Saturday is at Indiana, the annual Old Oaken Bucket rivalry game. They are 2-5/6-5, and actually have a shot at winning, unfortunately. This is at least on a par with the annual Ohio State vs Michigan game - both teams are 6-1 conference having both lost last weekend unexpectedly (Ohio State felled by unranked Illinois?!). Ohio State looks to be the stronger team with an overall record of 10-1 with the nation's #1 defense, vs. Michigan's 8-3 with losses to Appalachian St. and Oregon, plus injuries at QB and RB. Future Roommate Greg and I are divided in this manner and I think that next year the game will have to decide something big.

Continuing on through this recap of wacky football, the Dolphins nearly beat the Bills (13-10). As the Bengals were the most recent victim of the Bills' weak team, I nearly went ballistic until the winless Dolphins blew a 3rd quarter lead. Whew, that was close - our mediocre team almost looked even worse.

Speaking of blown leads, a Browns victory over the Steelers would've been good for my division, but the "big Doug Flutie" Ben Roethlisberger had a comeback drive to win 31-28. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm okay with rooting for the Browns as of late. I like QB Derek Anderson, and I also like WR Braylon Edwards (okay, some of that is his studly performance in fantasy football). I swear to god, though, the moment Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn gets in there, they're right back to my hated in-state division rivals.

Green Bay found a running game! They shut out the Vikings 34-0 and Adrian Peterson left early with a knee injury. They're now 8-1, tied for the best NFC record with the Cowboys, and face the 4-5 Panthers at Lambeau next. RB Ryan Grant had over 100 yards rushing, the first Vikings opponent to do so, and allowed some balance to Favre's gunslinging ways. This makes me really happy. Fox switching the game over to Eagles vs. Redskins once the game was one sided, however, did not make me really happy. It made me none happy. Negative, even.

I don't know what to make of the Saints anymore. Let's get some fuckin' consistency, good or bad, please. I mostly blame the quarterback in these situations, and Brees went back to his opening four game slump and contributed to the 37-29 loss to the Rams. THE RAMS. THE RAMS WHO WERE PREVIOUSLY WINLESS. *snarl* They fall to 4-5, the same record as the Texans they face this week. Fortunately, even after giving the Rams their first win (now only the Dolphins are winless), the Saints are in a shitty division and can come back - but they have to be good from now on. Seriously, Drew Brees, what the hell.

I don't know what's weirder, that the Cardinals scored 31 points to beat the Lions, or that the Lions only scored 21 to lose (considering last week), with negative yardage. And speaking of weird, the Colts lost to the Chargers, 23-21. Now, I never thought San Diego was that good anyway, having seen their [lack of] offensive production in the first ten weeks, and Indianapolis should've been hungry to win it after losing to the dirty cheaters [Patriots].

Maybe the Colts were hungry and they were decimated by injuries. Or Mr. Clutch Adam Vinatieri missed 2 field goals in a dome, the latter of which - a potential game winner - was 29 yards. Or Robot Manning threw six interceptions ("so why wouldn't you use it to throw into coverage?"). Whatever, pick your poison, the point is it shouldn't have happened. As Future Roommate Greg put it, the Chargers had a 16 point lead at the half, so the fact that there was a comeback at all was telling - Indy shouldn't have had that chance in the first place the way they played.

Cowboys beat the Giants, 31-20, in what some people figured was a battle of QBs. Fine with me, I never had any doubt in my boy Tony Romo. The undrafted rookie made a fool of Manning's brother - even though they were similar statistically, Romo is creative and scrappy and so much fun to watch! I heard he even plays Guitar Hero, so how can I not love him? They improve to 8-1, with a massive NFC east lead. Next up: 5-4 Redskins division game at Texas Stadium.

Finally, some good news. Bengals didn't score a touchdown and still beat the Ravens 21-7. At first I was upset that Carson Palmer wasn't finishing what he started [i.e. drives], and that Chad Johnson was hurt or Houshmandzadeh broke his TD streak. Turns out Ravens played a specific deep cover defense, so short passes by Palmer led to field position, and kicker Shayne Graham scored 21 points himself through field goals. That's seven FGs, one less than the record of eight set earlier this season by Titans' Rob Bironas. Wasn't pretty, but it was a division win bringing us one step closer to .500. That leaves us at 3-6, vs the 4-5 Cardinals at the Jungle in Cincy this week.

Lastly, fantasy football. I lost to Jenny 79-57, and while neither of us had a huge score or made the best choices of who to start, I really am frustrated with myself. I had two questionable players - New Orleans RB Reggie Bush and Indianapolis TE Dallas Clark. I decided to risk one, replace the other, and it bit me in the ass twice. Reggie Bush, who I did not play, had a great day. Much better than his replacement, Dallas RB Julius Jones. Dallas Clark, whom I figured was going to play, did not. ON TOP of all that, I figured the Colts' kicker would bail me out, but no. Optimal score was 90. This drops me back to .500, 4th place and 3 games behind. Three more weeks (including this one) until the playoffs...

he cares not for your suffering

Current Mood: encouraged

I want to go ahead and start off plugging my new novel (I have a fear that some people just read the first paragraph or so of my really long entries?) for NaNoWriMo. That's right, folks, I'm gonna go ahead and give it a shot. I have until the end of the month to try and write 50,000 words. I'll be posting chapters as I write them to this blog, so if you'd like, please stop by and give it a read, leave me a comment or two about what you like or don't, what I screwed up, or even what you hope will happen (I could use some ideas).

This means I will probably be writing in this blog less, so if you're jonesin' for a fix, try my other blog for this month. I also hope that by telling a bunch of people, I will be more inclined to stay on track.

What else should I talk about. Current Roommate Alex recently purchased an account to Gamefly, the Netflix of video games. Hopefully I can piggyback occasionally (like he does sometimes for my movies) when a good game comes to our house. Right now he's got Super Paper Mario (Wii) and it's really fun to watch! My only criticism so far is that it's a pain in the ass to scan every room three times (once regularly, once in 3-d, and once with the pointer), but if it's anything like the other 2, it'll still be a great game.

Speaking of games, I finally got to experience Guitar Hero III, and I love it for the most part. The song list - 70 songs! - is filled with lots of really great songs. My favorite so far is "Welcome to the Jungle". I'm not in love with the new visual styles (Judy Nails, what have they done to you?!), a few of the songs are really whiney and emo, and there's no Co-Op freeplay. No Freezepop! I am in love with the venue "Shanker's Island", and the obvious Tenacious D influence to the storyline. I tried a few sections of "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce, and it made my entire arm burn. Crazy. I doubt Greg and I will ever beat that one on expert, but it's a lot of fun hanging with him anyway.

I still don't know if I'm going to be able to make it to the A7X concert, but it's still in the works. Speaking of concerts, later this month Jenny and I are going to take a road trip in her new (used) car to Ft. Wayne to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Andy Ober and Jacque. I have no clue what I'm doing for Thanksgiving.

This weekend coming up is going to be filled with improv (shows on Friday and Saturday), writing a bunch, and football. Whee!

disparity of opinion

Current Mood: peeved

So, good thing I have some sort of living situation lined up for next year, because both of my roommates (but not me) got a letter from our property management company. It stated that they'd sold our building, and would no longer offer us housing after our current contract expires in August 2008. No need to panic right away, but it would've been nice to be notified.

Tangentially related, I hung out with Future Roommate Greg for our usual Tuesday routine. We are watching Season 1 of Prison Break, the current Season 2 of Dexter, current Season 4 of House (damn you, baseball playoffs), playing Guitar Heroes I, II, and Rocks the 80's (while waiting for GH III), and we even took a break to throw around a football for a bit, which is a surprisingly relaxing activity (I had never done that before). I also borrowed Blazing Angels for the Wii, and so far it's pretty cool.

plans gone awry

Current Mood: awake?

Hey all. Did anybody else watch The Office on Thursday night and really dislike the Bee Movie ads/shorts they showed? Normally I enjoy Jerry Seinfeld material, and up until that night I was ambivalent about the movie (it seemed kinda kid-oriented, but probably had a few zingers in it, similar to Shrek or something). The ads, however, really turned me off. So much that by the third one, I actively wanted to NOT see the movie. Way to go, advertisers.

On a completely unrelated note, I finally beat Shadow of the Colossus! It was a fantastic game, very stylized and artsy in a good way, with a unique concept and dynamite execution. Highly recommended.

Also, new Rabbit and Mouse.

age difference

Current Mood: monetarily conflicted

Financially, I've been trying super hard to save money and budget really well this semester. I've quit my job and haven't had as much student loan funds, plus it's always good to work on saving money. One of my key...reforms, if you will, is not eating out in lieu of buying better groceries and eating almost entirely in house, cooking more, and saving my rare dining experiences outside the apartment for special occasions like date nights with Jenny and gatherings with the Ship of Fools. Eating in this manner has an added benefit of being (somewhat) healthier.

This, of course, means now I see a ton of things I want to buy. Two of my biggest contenders:

1. Tickets to the Purdue vs. Ohio State game (October 6th)

This is a matchup of two favorite Big Ten Conference teams, both of which I root for. I of course go to Purdue, but I have many close friends at OSU, it's an Ohio team, and there's a lot of history and that sort of thing there. Last time they played here, I was a wee freshman, and we won (something I made sure to mention to Eric). I still have the program, and remember the halftime show that featured music by Queen. How can we top that? This year, both of our teams *should* be undefeated (especially if we stop first-time-in-school-history-starting-0 and 4 Notre Dame this weekend). I've not been to a Purdue football game since Freshman year because - here comes some irony - I worked on weekends to try to make more time for homework. Perhaps best of all, this time our halftime show will be a presentation of some NASA gifts, and the music is selections from The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, two of my favorite films. October is shaping up to be a sweet ass month.

Still, I don't have student tickets. All the other tickets are sold out, so I'm going to have to eBay or StubHub or Facebook marketplace these tickets, which is gonna cost a lot (like, half the cost of season tickets). 1 game? I will probably bite the bullet and get tickets- this is going to be an incredible game.

Edit: people on Facebook are pitting people against each other, and I'm not going to play that game. I heard today Purdue may be releasing some reserve tickets at the last minute, and John suggested I get some scalped tickets before the game. The plot thickens...

[Tangentially related via football: I am so pissed at Donovan McNabb for doing so well this week. I did not play him on my fantasy team, but I still won without him.]

2. Computer upgrades

When I say "upgrades", I think what I really mean is a new computer. Current Roommate Alex has gone completely gay for BioShock and I can't say I blame him. This was made possible by his new computer purchase, which upstaged my recent monitor/mouse/mp3 player upgrade, and even Other Roommate John's new computer purchase (mainly because Alex paid for it himself - John did not). I should stress that I'm content with my current computer - I don't really game on it much anymore, at least not anything current, and my new upgrades make things more comfortable. And I would hate to think that I only want to "keep up with the Joneses", so to speak.

Nay, this burning desire for new computer parts came from my inquiry into the requirements to run BioShock on my own machine. Last time I was seriously playing computer games (read: WoW), I had to turn all the graphics down to the bare bones minimum, and even then I crashed regularly in the larger zones/cities. Alex informed me playing BioShock on my current computer (the guts are "ancient", dating back to 2004 when I got my then state of the art Dell for my first year of Purdue) would roughly equate to playing...um...Halo 3 on a single line graphing calculator. I've got half a gig of RAM (his has 2), my video card is the slowest of the 5 in the house (yes, we have 5 - that includes John's old and new computer, and Alex's old and new one), and my processor is outdated in that it's not dual core or even quad core. My printer has long since died, and I've still got a floppy drive on the tower. The power source rattles and only stays quiet with a high-tech sound dampening device that carefully manages adequate tension between the case and the frame (read: a balled up sock).

I hate to feel like such a materialist. I already have a personal PC in my bedroom that works perfectly fine, does what I *need* it to (internet, school papers and projects, ancient games that are still amazing, jukebox duties, and movies). I don't *need* any upgrades. I already have a computer some people would kill to have.

But...but...BioShock! WoW! Spore! Starcraft II and other games!!

Alex told me that financially, it'd be more cost effective to buy a new computer rather than upgrade the guts. Seeing other computers in the house blow mine out of the water makes me feel inadequate, but I think the financial reality is that I just have to suck it up. New computer isn't gonna happen anytime soon, SC II or not. Realistically, I think a new computer would make a great "you're finally done with school" gift to myself for (hopefully) landing a real job.


I guess that means I need to play a little less video games, and study a little more.

tousled

Current Mood: uneasy
Current Music: "Tease Me Please Me" by Scorpions

This is nature at its most epic.




Also, after all this time, I'm roughly 1/3 through my music project. So. Many. mp3s.

I recently tried to play KOTOR, at the insistence of John and Andrew, but it crashed my computer over a dozen times, so I gave up. I'm not big on RPGs anyway.

Classes start tomorrow, and I'm really bummed.

love pup, man

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Deal With The Devil" by Judas Priest

So...a bit of video game disappointment.

First, a bit of sports news. Much to Current Roommate Alex's dismay, I have purchased the 07 (which has last season's players) incarnation of the Madden franchise for our Wii. I have been increasingly interested in football lately (mainly waiting for Purdue football and Monday Night Football to start again), and my hope was that this game would provide a meaningful activity for Jenny and I to play together. The game itself is fun, and the Wii movements make the physical aspect of football much more engaging rather than press Y to kick or press A to throw - you actually make the movements with the Wii remote. It has also helped me learn more football strategy and things like positions, plays, and players. We started a franchise of the Green Bay Packers and played through an entire season (Super Bowl victors, perfect season) on Rookie mode since neither of us had ever played. After the season ended Brett Favre retired, and it really felt like the team was diminished, not only because of his amazing arm, but more of just his [not] being there. I suppose his retirement isn't a surprise (he's football's Cal Ripken, the ironman who just keeps playing well beyond the average age), and it's been a discussion point for a few years...I just didn't expect it since he's still playing this (2007) year.

Secondly, I've been regularly visiting the Smash Brothers Dojo, a weekday update of small tidbits about SSB: Brawl for the Wii. The graphics look great, and I can appreciate trying to shake things up to keep each release from getting stale, but I don't like some of the changes I'm seeing. Yes, the game itself has always been tongue in cheek (compared to "serious" fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Soul Calibur), but the giant Nintendogs and Animal Crossing stage don't appeal to me. I also hate that Samus has been re-designed around her Zero Suit, losing the bubble-marine inspired suit in favor of a slimmer Sheik-type outfit. Why don't I play as bare-assed Tony Stark while I'm at it?

Seeing some of the new Pokemon in SSB:B even got me disappointed. Simply put, the new ones (past 151) suck. Case in point: Deoxys. It's a DNA Pokemon. ... I was pretty happy playing Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Stadium for Nintendo 64 back in the day (and I'm not ashamed to admit it -they were great games!) but I have a hard time getting into the new stadium game (entitled Battle Revolution) for the Wii. This is mainly because I have no DS which is used to connect the Wii to my nonexistent copy of the well-reviewed Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, which of course were busy trying to milk what little was left of the fans after Pokemons Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. No joke.

Lastly, and I think most upsetting, is the sad realization that Rock Band is likely just a dream for me. I've been brainstorming ways to raise money (solicting my body for sex, begging, selling cookies, holding an audition for paying members to be in my Rock Band band...) but they all come up short in my mind. I can't really justify purchasing an XBox 360 for what would pretty much be one game (I could find more games I want to play, but nothing is standing out, and I'd just fritter my time and money away on *another* game system anyway). I'm getting by pretty well so far not owning a console of any kind, and I'd like to keep it that way. On top of that, the game itself is gonna cost an arm and a leg. Maybe I should just keep working to be in a Real Band instead.

just the right motivation

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: "Blood Stained" by Judas Priest

I wanted to mention video games in my last post, but when I got down to listing some of the video games I was looking forward to or would like to try, I decided it warranted separate mention.

Recent video game accomplishments of note:
*Have resisted falling back to WoW over the summer
*Finished Resident Evil 4 on professional mode with the default start, and my final stats were: 25 deaths, 78% hit accuracy, 979 enemy kills, play time of 14 hours 39 minutes
*Made a clutch shot on Wii Play (target practice) at the last second, sniping a duck that was bolting across the screen for 15 points, which put me 1 point ahead of Jenny for the win

To do:
*finish PS2 Shadow of the Colossus (I borrowed it from a friend and had to give it back before beating the final boss - does anybody have a copy I can borrow?)
*complete PS2 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (it's back with Bradley)
*get past the first level of Wii Splinter Cell: Double Agent (really. hard.)
*finish Wii Trauma Center: Second Opinion (very fun! much more challenging but less informative than this)
*medal up more on Wii Play, specifically get to level 100 on Tanks!
*grow a pair and start the GC remake of Resident Evil Zero
*get 2 more Wii remotes and 3 nunchuks for the apartment
*take Wii Play and Trauma Center pictures
*probably get an XBox 360 (see below)

Some games to consider purchasing:
-> must get

GC Resident Evil remake (any)
->Wii Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Wii Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
->Wii Super Paper Mario
Wii Guitar Hero III
Wii Marvel Heroes
->Wii Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
->Wii Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Wii Transformers
Wii Pokemon Stadium
Wii Madden 08
->PC Starcraft II (holy. shit.)
PC Hitman Series (any)
PC Sniper Elite
PC Left 4 Dead
PC Spore
PS2 Indigo Prophecy
->PS2 Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's
XBox 360 Dead Rising
->->XBox 360 Rock Band

Some notes...
*many of these aren't out yet
*currently at the apartment we have Wii, GC, PS2, and an XBox
*I'll probably want some classic games to be purchased on the Wii
*prices go down for older stuff
*note that none of them are PS3, which can disappear off the face of the planet for all I care - games are meant to be affordable, damnit

And then there's a few things I'd like to mention


Gamefly
This is a Netflix-style service, where you pay a flat monthly fee to have video games shipped via US mail to your house. Depending on how much you pay, you can have a certain amount out at any given time. Now, I have not myself tried the service (so don't think this is a sales pitch), but I've known friends who have it and are reasonably satisfied with it, and others that say it's too slow and expensive. I think it sounds good for a number of reasons:
1. You can return games at your pace, which gives you that extra day to beat a game that perhaps you might not get at a rental store
2. It becomes more cost effective (on a monthly fee) to rent more games, which encourages you to try games you might not normally, or take a chance on a mediocre game you aren't 100% you'll love
3. Specialty rentals, like party games, a game for a friend, or a friend's system
4. Convenience - I don't have a car, and the nearest Blockbuster is 30 minutes across town, so mailing things and paying online is a lot easier than buying brand new games
5. Parents may be able to control (through ESRB ratings) what video games their kid rents
6. Large distribution centers may have games your small town EB doesn't, or is out of stock
7. The service could be a good gift idea

And some down sides:
8. Cost
9. Waiting for the mail
10. Games out of stock
11. No older systems!
12. Little problems can magnify when you have to mail things or call tech support

Next, we come to a small matter of, oh, about $700 to purchase an XBox 360 and Rock Band. I really really really want this. Guitar(s), drums, and a microphone all set up with the successful formula of Guitar Hero, with online play and downloadable content. This means I can rock the fuck out on XBox Live with Eric or Greg or Bradley...or all three. Yes, it's expensive, and yes, I wish it was for the Wii. But I've never owned a video game console in my life and I think this honestly may be the game to break that cycle, even if I have to sell a kidney.

Speaking of the Wii, I would like to lastly mention that I think Nintendo has done a fantastic job of being a broad fun machine. What do I mean by this? Advertising for the Wii has focused on including more than just people my age and gender into playing. I think video gamers have a sterotype about them, and even beyond that, that Nintendo consoles are thought of as kid-centric (not true- Capcom is developing a Wii-only Resident Evil 4 remake, in addition to many other "mature" titles for the Wii). Where I'm going with this is that usually I don't bond well with others playing video games unless they are my age and typically male. This isn't always out of dis-interest or malice, but sometimes skill. Not so anymore! Jenny and I are enjoying some Wii time lately. And I couldn't be happier about it. I have always tried to avoid getting so wrapped up in a game (especially 1 player games, or even moreso, MMORPGS like WoW) that I ignore the people around me, and I think the Wii makes it easier to share the fun without a steep learning curve.


"According to Natsuki Isaki, next-generation tech has allowed the team to make even more massive and devastating machines of war than before. We’re crossing our fingers for a giant flying mechanical squid that shoots lightning and devours helicopters for fuel. That would be sweet."
-Game Informer magazine


What about you? What games are you currently enjoying or waiting for?

Nintendo Fanboys

Current Mood: awesome
Current Music: "We All Die Young" by Steel Dragon

We (Current Roommate Alex, John, and I) now have an apartment Wii that we bought from a porn star. Seriously.

Wii buddies, anyone?