Monday, December 31, 2007

Feels Like Summer All The Time

I just got back a couple of days ago from a family vacation to Orlando, Florida. We went there for the holidays to take in all the theme parks. Let me just say that I was not excited at first because I am a creature of habit and ritual. I like my Christmas served cold and in New York, so summer weather in Florida weirded me out.

Also, this was not just a family vacation in the dog days of December, but it was a vacation with a huge family: I got to see my cousins, aunts, uncles for a whole week. I love my family, but like most people's families, they're dysfunctional. I did not think I could survive a week in the hot December sun with clashing personalities. We're all family so you have to put up with shit just like they have to put up with yours. Don't get me wrong though, there are always good times to be had when you meet up with family, but being in a new setting during a landmark holiday adds some tension.

I realize now that I cannot live in warm weather areas because I enjoy the change in the seasons. I want my turkey to have orange and red and yellow leaves just as much as I want my Christmases immaculate (though, I can't remember the last time it snowed on December 25th).

And Oh how stressful this Christmas day was. I started off the day in the bad mood (I think I started out each day I was in Florida in a bad mood). Since the whole family was together, Mom wanted everyone to wear red for the day. Fine I could deal with that except I did not bring anything red on vacation. Oh wait, I did but it wasn't "red" enough (maroon?). So I was forced to wear this bright-ass shirt that did not fit me well. Merry Christmas!

Then we thought we could get into the Magic Kingdom at Disney. We waited in traffic for an hour (should've took 20 minutes) only to be turned away at the entrance because the park had reached capacity. So you're telling me that 1 o'clock in the afternoon on Christmas, Magic Kingdom would be full? No, way? Surely Floridians would find other ways to find a festive place to celebrate? Oh wait, this is Florida. And we were tourists who wake up late and take hours in the bathroom to get ready (that's my fault though). Merry Christmas!

Yay! So instead of celebating Christmas in New York, we're going to cram our asses into Universal Studios. It's festive enough right? Shrek 4-D and Twister and Jaws. Merry Christmas!

Of course I had to have a drink. One Marguerita, please.

Friday, December 21, 2007

It's 4 a.m. I must be lonely

Lost is coming back. When it does, it will be the first time I would be watching it on television. You see, I crammed all three seasons a couple of months ago (in the span of a couple of weeks, right before the start of the school season).

So basically, I'm a lost newbie. A lewbie. A losbie?

Oh why, oh why do I keep getting new shows to get addicted to? Don't I have a life? (Nobody answer that. Literally, no one reads this so no one CAN answer that.)

But I do want to say that I am glad I was able to finally get hooked on to Lost. I will admit. I was hater-ating all the Losties who loved Lost. I refused to jump on the band wagon mainly because I think I feel like I have to be the rebel (I have never seen Survivor. But that's reality crap-a-vision. I Love New York is a classy piece of realicrap). So I will apologize to Lost Nation: "I am sorry for being a hater. Now I really, really, really love Lost. Seriously".

See exhibit A: I love Heroes. I started watching Heroes right away when it first aired. I got all my family and friends hooked immediately. But after the debacle that was volume 2 (my hate for volume 2 deserves it's own blog), Heroes has dropped significantly on my awesome list. Lost has usurped the throne Honestly, even if Heroes didn't drop so badly this season, Lost would still have taken its rightful place. The acting and the writing is top notch. None of that fake-cheerleader-bullshit-love-trangle-japanese-feudal-time-cry-black-tears-shit.

For God's sake, they wasted Ms. Veronica Mars' talents. Now I have to write a letter to Kristen Bell apologizing for those Heroes writers' sorry-ass attempt at writing.

Is there anyway I can get Hiro traded for Lost's Charlie. I mean Hiro has no clue how to use his powers (lame) while Charlie was from drive-shaft. I'm sad now.






And, oh she can. She definitely can.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Let's Blame Video Games, Shall We?

So two 16 and 17 year-old teenagers are accused of killing a 7 year-old girl, who was one of the killer's sister. The police report claims that the two teenagers used "mortal kombat" moves to beat the girl. She fractured her bones, internal bleeding, and brain swelling.

Now it is pretty sad and stupid that two people could do such a thing. They were supposed to be babysitting the girl. Let's end that story there.

But no. Someone had to be fancy and blame it on Mortal Kombat. Now this would have been marginally relevant in, oh, say 1994-- when Mortal Kombat was the provocative game everyone blamed. Has anyone who was not a gamer even played this game? How can they differentiate the Mortal Kombat style moves compared to any old fighting moves. I'm sure the little girl was found frozen in ice a la sub-zero with a ninja spear attached to her.

We should never blame any type of media. In fact, if you blame video games for this, you should blame E! entertainment for glamorizing the Lohan's, Spears' and Kardashian's way of life: act like a teenager when you have children to take care of (yes, I'm looking at you Mrs. Lohan). Violence is violence. Video Games did not invent senseless killing. If you think about it all killing can be deemed senseless. So people shut-up and stop pretending that everything is okay because you THINK you know that video games is the cause instead of your sorry parenting skills.


I hope to God that these two killers were so fuckin' high out of their minds. I hope they thought they were protecting the world from a 4-foot tall alien that resembled one of their sisters. If they weren't reason impaired, I'd have to say I just lost all hope for humanity.

I think I'd rather be a robot and become friends with my 5 th generation iPod.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Yeah. She Could.

Gossip Girl.  Show on the CW here in New York.  Mostly for teens.  Well, okay, only for tweens and teens.  Mostly beautiful and rich people with problems that real people don't get.  But, hey, it's television.  My guilty pleasure this show.
One last thing:  Is it wrong that I think the most attractive person on that show full of young hot girls is the mother?  The "mother".  Yeah, you know who I'm talking about.
And Yeah.  She could definitely get you know what.







Get it.  She could definitely get it.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

And Then The Hiro Should Die. Please.

So last Monday (November 26) on Heroes, we are left with Hiro and Peter in a showdown. I can't help but compare this with the showdown that should have been in the season one finale: Sylar versus Peter. I am hoping against all hopes that this showdown makes up for even a fraction of what the past showdown should have been. I don't want to see Hiro charge Peter and end up being teleported to some other stupid-ass by-gone era (I am never going to forgive Heroes for that Feudal Japan era that Hiro was "stuck" in).

I hope the fight lasts up until the next commercial break and I've choreographed what should go down because I still stand by my theory that the reason why there was no showdown on the finale was that Heroes does not have a choreographer. I'm almost positive the actors were given an outline of what the fights should be like and therefore there were no fights. These people are actors not stunt ninjas.

Here's how it the showdown should go down (hehe). As we see Hiro charge maniacally towards Peter, Peter shoots a lightning bolt towards Hiro, but Hiro teleports instantly to dodge it. Then he immediately reappers right behind Peter. Peter, in slow motion, realizes this and "relearns" how to teleport so he teleports just as Hiro is swinging down with his blade. This leads the two to do a semi-teleporting, speed-fighting battle a la dragon-ball z or any other anime. One guy swings with a blade and the other mainly uses lighting bolts.

Just to satisfy the fans, Peter should throw in a mixture of other powers like flying and regeneration. Basically, Peter should look like what he should have looked like when fighting Sylar: balls-to-the-wall ballistic (by the way, he would have totally kicked Sylar's ass).

As the two are getting into it, they will of course be having a conversation. I would like it to "end" with Hiro getting stabbed semi-fatally (Oh, no! Is Hiro dead? God, I hope so. He deserves it for being a giant douche in ancient Japan. Have I told you how much I hated that story line?). But the conversation Peter and Hiro had should open Peter's eyes to Adam's intentions and since Hiro got stabbed/killed/victoried the frozen time should resume and Adam and Peter come face to face.

Anyway, I couldn't care less what happens next because all the writers are on strike, but I think the Heroes writers should be stricken from their duties because this Season has been horrible (What was the point of Maya's brother and how blind can she be. They also wasted Veronica Mar's* talents!)



*Yes, I know she's Kristen Bell. But I have to represent for the VM fans out there.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Super Mario Galaxy is a Very Good Game

As a self-proclaimed Nintendo nerd, my relationship with the Wii has been a rocky one. We've had our ups and downs. I mean, c'mon, the system is basically a mini-game machine except for a handful of real games. And one of those real games is Super Mario Galaxy.

Now as of this writing I am taking my sweet time through the game and am around 40 stars or so. I've looked at reviews for the game and at one point the average review of SMG rated it as the number game in the world. Blasphemy! The bestest game ever is of course The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But that does not mean Galaxy is a slouch. It's just not the best game ever nor even the best Mario game. However, it is an improvement over Mario's previous outing : Super Mario Sunshine.

Super Mario Galaxy is more about platforming than Sunshine ever was, and that is what makes a mario game a mario game: when there's jumping on platforms. In sunshine, there was too much talking and spraying with the water pack. I hate water in my games. It's never fun to swim in a video game, just ask anyone. Galaxy is more like those weird pipe levels in Sunshine. Those are the levels that make absolutely no sense physically (moving platforms in the middle of space?) but that's why they made Galaxy so fun. I don't need a reason or backstory to jump around in a mario game. Just tell me where to get the star/shine/mushroom/flag/princess and show me the moving/tricky/falling platforms and I'm good to go.


Galaxy is not without its faults, though. It is a little too easy. In some levels, I barely knew what I was doing and beat them in under 5 minutes. Maybe if the levels got progressively harder the easy levels would be justified, but they haven't seem to increase (Yet). I'll let you guys know if I get into trouble later on.

My most favorite part of the game, though is the gravity "physics". The Wii is not a very powerful system so I doubt that the physics engine in the game is very intricate, but it's just so damn fun to orbit a tiny planet/platfrom and see how many times you can go around it. Sometimes, instead of going for the stars I just spend 20 minutes jumping around a small sphere in space to break my record of revolutions.

Super Mario Galaxy is ultimately a very good game. It's brought back my faith in the Mario franchise. I just hope other developers see that the Wii is more than just a party box and put more time to create games like SMG.

Monday, August 27, 2007

I'd Kick Your Ass But Your Armor From God is Preventing Me

For some reason, off the top of my head, I can't recall what games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre are called (probably have a "tactics" in it). It's sort of a weird time to be a gamer. While I do have the expendable income because of my job (and not paying rent might helps), I find that I like to spend my money on other things like clothing and DVDs. The clothing comes from the fact that I have to look decent for work (respect?) and also as the season changes it might be a good idea to change a little. The DVDs come from the fact that I have recently become a NetFlix member and with all the TV shows that I'm watching it helps to get the box sets when they come out (Ugly Betty and Heroes ahem).

Anyway, I'm not very good with my money (I need to grow up), so I have to wisely chose what games to buy. Tuesday marks the arrival of Metroid Prime 3 for the Wii, and I'm definitely getting it I just don't know when. But I'll post a half-assed review once I get it and play around with it.

In the meanwhile, my busted up PSP currently has the RPG Jeanne D'arc. Now I really enjoy Strategy RPGs. These are RPGs that have your characters line up on a gridded battlefield and you take turns moving your characters against the opponent. The really good SRPGs have you think alot before you even begin a battle and allow you to micromanage skills and weapons. I'm probably, at most, 8 hours into this game, and so far it's adequate.

The story is horrible mainly because it takes liberties with the real history of Joan of Arc. What bothers me is that I cannot feel for the main character: she starts off as a nice girl and then all of a sudden gets bloodlust after her whole village is destroyed. She doesn't even respectfully seek justice, she's just gungho about wanting to kill the enemy. She's so lucky she has special armor from God or else her ass would be wasted. Also, so far, there's not much in terms of micromanaging. All the ingredients are there: weapons, skills, and magic. But so far, only one character is getting juiced up and that's Jeanne, the main character. My other 10 characters are just variations of people with swords, lances, and axes. I mean, c'mon, I only have one person who can even be remotely considered as a magician/mage and she can only cast a healing spell and fireball. In fact she's the second most powerful right now since she's been getting so much experience from healing my party.

Maybe I'm not far enough into the game? Well, at least it kills time. The enjoyable aspect is that certain characters have armlets that let them transform into "super" forms that have better stats and abilities. These super form can only be achieved by some characters. The great thing is that these forms are really powerful. For example, if you kill an enemy while in this form, you get something called "godspeed" and are able to move that character again. If you time them correctly, you can kill many characters in one turn.

So I'll be playing this game here and there, but I'm definitely waiting for more advance SRPGs like the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSP or even its sequel for the Nintendo DS.

Friday, August 24, 2007

It Tastes Like Pie and It's Good

First off let me start off by saying that many of the shows I'm into get canceled. I don't know what it is, but I just have that magic touch. And it's not because they're bad shows-- they're usually critical darlings but are never given the chance to develop an audience (except for The Black Donnellys which I don't think anyone thought was a good show except for me. It must've been the whole scenario of brothers sticking together that got me. Plus it's the Irish!)

Well I just finished watching the pre-air pilot for Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wednesdays). I acquired the pilot through the interweb, and it was well worth it. I heard good things about the pilot so I just had to see for myself (I tend to follow fads and I heard there was an underground support for this upcoming show-- well maybe not so underground).

Premise: A guy can bring things back to life with one touch and kill them with another. Do I need to say more? Well it's a comedy/drama or a dramedy, and the scenario just lends itself to great situations. It's also shot in fairy tale style with voice overs narrating the story playfully. Imagine an old grandpa character reading you a bedtime story when you're 9 years old. Very sweet and comfy! The show looks like a Tim Burton movie like Edward Scissor-hands or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Combine Story-book telling storytelling with the aesthetics of a Tim Burton movie and you've got the second best reason to watch ABC this fall (Lost is on for midseason, and Ugly Betty gets a close third/second?). I couldn't stop watching and I really like the characters. I even laughed out loud from a show that's not solely a comedy.

Another reason I like this show so far is the lead character. The protagonist has a fear of opening up to other people (understandbly because of his touching power) and he has pined and dreamed of his childhood crush all his life. I think I can relate. Just watch the pilot to see what happens.

If anything else, you owe it to yourself to check out the first episode this October 3rd and decide for yourself. It's sweet (I literally can taste it and it tastes like strawberry-bananas and it's guuud.

Bittorent!

Quick Thought

In an effort to put more content or ANY content on this blog, I'm going to start putting quick posts once in a while to capture the moment. I have to come up with a name for these quick posts, but "Quick Thought" will suffice for now (I'll accept any recommendations).

For my first QT, it's going to be really quick and irrelevant, but for some reason, my punctuation does not show up on my posts. Sure I have horrible punctuation in general, but not double spacing after periods is not one of them. It just does not show up!

Also, I really should add some widgets to this blog. I think the best thing about this blog, besides the posts (hehe) is the title. I'm so proud that I came up with this title. I'm going to have to ask Sutiben to hook this motha' up. Plus if I get a mac or whatnot, I want to go all the way and make things look purty as he says.

End Thought.

Note-To-Self: Talk about my Wii in the next real post.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Column A and Column B

*cough* *cough*

That's me coughing because of all the dust that this blog has accumulated. Time to dust it off. (Oh, yeah, by the way, I hate using those asterisks to pretend I'm coughing-- it's my first time so I hope no one gets used to it)

Time to stay focused for this post.

Anyway, I'm in the market for a new laptop. I have two options in mind: the macbook (drool...) or your omnipresent windows notebooks. I'm having a tough time figuring out what to pick. On the one hand macbooks (drool...) is oh so sexy, but then you have the familiar notebooks which you feel "safe" with because you've been with forever.

What do I need a lappy for? Nothing really, I just want to have something to kill time with and surf the web and possibly do multimedia work if I'm ever motivated. I could possibly make videos and join this youtube craze. I heard peeps get discovered on the interweb so I might try my hand at being the next Spielberg (I'm not cool enough to know any other directors off the top of my-- Scorcese, meh).

I'm also a gamer, but more of a console gamer since I'm not too good with computers and PCs are expensive. Since I'm not so good with computers maybe a mac will be best since I heard it' more reliable and does not need much tweeking out of the box. Less maintenance too. But it's also uber expensive. While I am a balla/baller I'm having second thought on spending it on a macbook.

But I'm also a little swayed by aesthetics and the fact that Veronica Mars used a powerbook is a plus (Don't know VMars? Tsk tsk. Typical human hehe).

Anyway, if I do get a macbook, I may have to wait for October when OSX Lepoard comes out. If I'm impatient and want more bang for my buck I may settle for the familiar notebook which I'll just tweak like hell and ask Ol' Sutiben for help (hehe shoutout to S- dog).

Laters.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

NBC blows.

I'll make this short, but not so sweet. I watch a fair amount of television. In just the same way the sitcom is dying, the great dramas are dying too. Rather, they're being prematurely killed off and replaced by unfunny reality tv bullshit.

I'm speaking specifically of the tragic cancellation of The Black Donnellys on NBC (By the way, go download it on that stupid network's website or iTunes).

It had amazing characters that I really got attached to. It's a show about family and responsibility. There is no good or bad, but a grey area of morality in the show. The main character struggles to remain law-abiding but he has to support his brothers at the same time. On top of that, he has a childhood love that he can't be with because of the shady things that he's involved with. You really root for him. I root for him and I've always thought there was a clear cut good guy that you could root for in shows: he's not clear cut good because of his actions, but he has good intentions.

Bottom line, in just the same way Arrested Development was cancelled and bummed me out, the cancellation of The Black Donnellys bums me. It bums me out a little more because I thought NBC had some sort of class compared to Fox who gave Pam Anderson her own show and still has War at Home on the air.

If it weren't for Heroes . . .