Absolutezero's Mog House

Oh My Pokémon,

2011-02-22T07:48:00.001-07:00

Exciting time to be a pokéfan I tell ya. Pokémon how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

1. Pokémon Black & White release is just on the corner. Gen V is almost here with version specific cities, new pokémon, redesigned city layouts and interactivity! Less than 2 weeks man, less than 2 weeks.

2. Pokémon events! the shiny legendary dog trio event just ended but many more are on the horizon! from now to the 8th of march (I believe) you can download Celebi from any gamestop location as well as Victini (a Gen V legendary) will be available starting march 6th, and the Zoroark event can be triggered by trading one of the shiny legendary dogs to your B&W game.

3. Starting soon players will be able to play an online version of the Pokémon TCG. There will be several starter decks to choose from at release with more available in subsequent updates. it's stated the decks will be customizable but to what extent isn't yet known.

4. Did I mention new pokémon?? Ha!

So yeah, it's a good time. Not a fan? well nows not a bad time to start either :p

Remember, Remember, the 14th of September!

2010-09-14T03:23:00.000-06:00

As most of you probably know I picked up the Limited Edition version of Halo: Reach yesterday night. Of course after the initial batch of pictures I took my friends and I jumped into online multiplayer for a couple hours before it was time for bed. I didn't really have any time to really look over the main component of the limited edition: Halsey's journal.

After getting a chance to look at it I can honestly say the extra 20 bucks was well spent. The effort and design put into the journal is nothing short of astounding. Bungie has really outdone themselves this time and I think it's safe to say those who purchased the limited or legendary editions will be extremely pleased.

The journal itself is more like a small book written by Dr. Halsey: a very very important, yet frequently unexpanded, character in the Halo universe. Anyone who has read "The Fall of Reach" will understand what I mean when I say this journal contains some very awesome totally canon information that until now was never truly expanded upon.

Aside from the journal pages themselves, the journal also contains alot of extra printed material from the Halo universe. News clippings, photographs, dossiers, personal letters, and even information on the Spartan Master Chief John-117 and his Mjolinr mk.IV armor.

Oh and there's an iron-on patch, whooo!

So aside from the game being totally awesome (so far) I highly recomend the limited or legendary editions for any person who is hungry for more insight into the Halo storyline!

C is for 100! C is for Corsair!

2010-09-03T20:15:00.001-06:00

Well, this is my 100th post! Yay!

My Corsair is 80! Yay

My old friends are returning to FFXI! Yay!

They're updating XI soon and getting rid of that awful +5 min and persistant buff on COR rolls! Yay!

Seriously I don't know what they were thinking when they did that, it's like they've never even played the job. But enough about them... let's talk more about meeeee!

As I mentioned before I finally hit level 80 last weekend just a few days after my wife did. Abyssea of course. The place is literally like dying and going to EXP heaven. When I finally did ding of course I figured it was time for 3 things.

First is new gun. In the works are the Trial of Magians gun which gives STR and ranged attack, perfect for my COR and my (so far) 6/8 merits in marksmanship.

Second is new armor. Now I'm not all that interested in that new stuff... you know... it's pink... so I'm going to finish my add-ons finally for some great COR tailored gear.

Third is, as unlikely as it sounds, I'm making an iPhone theme based on FFXI. I found this website that does the coding for you as long as you create your own images. So I spent the better part of yesterday in fireworks making some icons. I'll post a link here when I finish it but as of right now I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

Tonight is another Abyssea party in which I hope to get another 10 merits and hopefully some headway on 81 when the cap raises again after the update! Feel sorry for mobs that'll be taking my barrages tonight!

The Prodigal Corsair Returns!

2010-08-11T12:08:00.000-06:00

well I know it's been awhile and whatnot but I've been on the computer less and less

mostly since it sucks.

but I thought it would be appropriate to mention I'm again playing the game that spawned the idea for this blog. that's right, the crazy corsair of carbuncle is back!

of course in the year sabatical I've taken no one remembers who I am anymore.

don't worry it happened to Joaquin Phoenix too (who? oh, that's right...)

so in the time since my return I know there's been alot of changes.

I know they raised the level cap which is cool I guess but now every damn Mage in the game subs RDM for convert.

there are tons of far less obvious changes that have taken place over the last year. like abassea... no it's not a life threatening health condition, it's some new fangled area you can access after buying a $10 episode.

apparently the leveling there is insane, something akin to 25k exp an hour once you get rolling in a decent party.

that's insane, I mean I don't mean to sound like a geezer or anything but I remember when getting 10k an hour in dunes meant you were the most badass 6 players in the game. that's right, I mentioned the dunes. people used to level there ya know.

now someone get me my oxygen tank, I think I'm getting cranky.

another thing is the economy seemed to calm down. it was the third happiest day of my life to learn that bullets are now alot cheaper than they used to be. most items in fact have gone down greatly in price. things you used to have to sacrifice small animals for well within arms reach, due in part to the level cap increase I'm sure. and on that note the new level 80 equip is mostly rediculously cheap. most of it costs as much as armor at level 30 and it's damn good stuff to boot. what's the catch? it makes you look like a second hand store fasionista as it's all just re-colored level 30 armor models... explains the price...

and of course what return to form would my personal "welcome home to vanad'iel be without death in massive quantities.

ever since I heard they removed the level caps on CoP mission areas I've been eager to finish a few quests and missions I simply didn't have the help for before. one was a quest to pose mannequins. of which I own 8.... what don't hate me because I'm rich. let me tell you, just cause they removed the level cap in the aquaducts doesn't mean that they made the mannequin NM any easier.

pwn'd

by that I meant I was :(

so in my first week back to the game I officially lost a total of 4k experience, hurray, now I really feel like I'm home!

iPeen

2010-05-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

Well its finally mine. My awesome wife, brother and friend victor all teamed up to get me my dream phone, the iPhone. Yes, it is awesome. Yes it does everything. It can order food for me, do my homework, it can even walk my dog... ok it can't do that.

Honestly though I love this thing. If you're looking for a phone and you have the means I highly suggest you look into one. Signal is great, apps are great (of course), the camera (although 2 megapixel) is suprisingly awesome, and it can even do wi-fi hotspots.

Now of course my iPhone is probably a bit cooler than most, it has a few apps on it that make it stand out, if you know what I mean.

If you don't, well then frankly I'm not going to tell you haha.

But I will say this, the add ons I have fix most of the things people complain about iPhones. Everything except the battery life, which is pretty bad. Thankfully that can be helped with external battery cases and charge cases.

Best of all, it keeps track of my decks, tokens and life totals in Magic:tG, and frankly that is the most WIN of all time!

The Price of Fandom

2010-04-29T16:12:00.000-06:00

So I was doing a search for Kingdom Hearts pictures yes? You know how I just got that pretty new iPhone? well I was thinking of giving the theme editing a shot so I could make a cool Kingdom Hearts theme since none of the ones I find seem to satisfy my need for one, and in said search I some how came across this.

I know, its pretty much one of the coolest DSi related KH merch to date. (not that there was much to begin with really)

Since I actually have 358/2 days and I think its a pretty cool game I thought to my self: "Self, wouldnt it be cool to have that?"

So I went where any self-respecting buyer of imported merchandise goes... eBay.

And what do I find there but the very item I was looking for at the buy it now price of... $99.00

wtf!

No seriously, wtf?

This thing, no matter how cool could never be sold for more than 20 dollars. I mean if this thing was forged in the fires of Mount Doom I wouldnt pay more than 25 bucks.

But it's not, it's made out of plastic (earth plastic before you ask) and doesn't really afford the DSi more than a 1 maybe 2 foot drop's worth or protection. I know, I already have something like this with Megaman on it.

And while I recognize the fact its out of print I cant understand why in the hell something like this would be worth half as much as the thing its protecting. Hell, with a good deal you can get a DSi for the same damn price as this thing!

Now I consider myself a collector, and I consider myself a fan of Kingdom Hearts as well, but no matter how much of either of those I am I'm simply not paying this much for something cost literally all of 10 cents to make. C'mon people. Plastic is cheap. Hell, so is cotton and ink, so wouldnt it make sense to value them both about the same?

Say it with Zombies...

2010-04-28T10:39:00.000-06:00

I downloaded "The Passing" DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 this past saturday and honestly I'm pretty glad I did. This is the first DLC released for L4D2 and in fact I'm surprised it took so long for one to come out.

Timing aside I have to say this is my favorite Left 4 Dead DLC so far. It adds a new 3-act level, a new heavy weapon (the M60), and a new melee weapon (golf club!). I like it because it's quick, easy for when you dont want to play a prolonged campaign or versus match, but it's longer than Crash Course so it feels like its got more substance to it. The enviroments are diverse enough through the levels that it feels longer than its 3 acts while only taking 30-45 minutes to complete. And the climax of the campaign is a very aweseome scavenge run with the survivors from Left 4 Dead helping you!

Also added in the DLC is a new special infected type, the Fallen Survivor. Imagine a survivor who thought he was immune and was sadly mistaken. Apparently people like that become special infected. They have no unique attacks but take more damage to kill than a regular infected and can also retreat before being killed, usually running you to another special infected or zombie horde. Thankfully when you kills these annoying kiters they drop things you might normally find on a survivor like health packs, pills, adrenaline, explosives, or the occasional melee weapon.

Another change to the game the DLC makes are the caches. They're exactly what they sound like, a large case filled with an unlimited supply of things like pistols, pills, molotovs, pipe bombs, or adrenaline shots.Camping by these things can be very advantagous if you need to stop anyways or in case of horde.

And of course if that wasn't enough The Passing adds a new Midnight Riders song!

What you're not sold?

Fine, The Passing DLC also adds a new mode called Mutation. What that is exactly is a constatnly changing special game type. The way it works is every thursday a new blog post will be availible detailing the Mutation that will be availible friday. As an example the Mutation until this friday is Realism Versus, So whenever you click on the Mutation gametype, you'll automatically be taken to a versus match with realism mode enabled. It won't stop there either, the rules can be changed as much or as little as valve decides so I'm curious to see what kind of zany antics they come up with.

All in all The Passing is definatly worth your 7 bucks and adds a total of 250 gamerscore points in case you were interested.

I give The Passing DLC for L4D2 a solid BRAAAIIINNNNSSSS/10

My Pokémans...

2010-04-22T17:01:00.004-06:00

Let me show you them...

as of 04/22/2010, 297:17 hours Pokédex is:
Seen: 479
Obtained: 467

once again that aint much more from my last update so I decided to help MYSELF by making this to guide me in my plan to catch 'em all. this is a list of all the Pokémon i'm missing and how i can go about obtaining them! wish me luck, i'll need it!

Update: been doing this for about a month now, and getting closer to at least having seen them all! Arceus comes out on saturday so ill have a chance for at least +1 to seen and obtained then!

Update (11/10): Running out of Pokémon to catch in Platinum entirely! aside from swarms and pal park im going to have to focus on the GBA versions to continue making some sort of progress. Got Arceus last sat too so I took him off the list!

Update (11/13): Beat LeafGreen then transfered over a bunch of the Pokémon i was missing including Mewtwo! gonna breed and raise some of the ones i got to keep fillin in the holes, but by the end of the day, maybe weekend, i will only need 3 more Pokémon to complete the first 150! and since Mew is pretty much guaranteed as long as I spend a buttload of time catching crap Pokémon to throw into my ranch the first 151 will be done soon! now just to work on Emerald Version and catch the legendary Pokémon in that game.... im at the elite 4, but I need to do some raising before I can take them on!

Update (11/20): Beat Emerald version, and transfered over Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza. I seriously underestimated how easy it would be to find and catch Latios or Latias though, not to mention you need to have an e-reader to get both on Emerald... dont think I'll buy one, I think I'll just play the game twice. thankfully everytime I see my Pokédex I get a renewed fervor to complete my Pokédex as i am so close now!

Update (3/8): Downloaded the draco meteor Jirachi and the Picachu colored Pichu in the last week. Gearing up for HG/SS as like... 20 (just counted) can easily be caught from them and transfered to my Platinum game. That'll bring my "Obtained" to 472! after that only 21 remain, 18 of which are possible for me to catch (the other 3 being special event Pokémon, Deoxys, Celebi, and Manaphy). I love it when a plan comes together!

Update (4/16): Most of what I can catch from SS is caught. I have the option to catch a Latios, Moltres and of course Raikou and Entei, and after those are done I will be transfering those, as well as the legendaries and just the normal ones I needed from my SoulSilver game to Platinum!

Update (4/22): finally caught those bastard dogs, bred a couple Totodiles for my Platinum game, and traded the rest of what I caught previously to Platinum. Look how short the list is!!

115 - Kangaskahn - catch
146 - Moltres - catch
151 - Mew - My Pokémon Ranch
230 - Kingdra - evolve
251 - Celebi - ???
335 - Zangoose - trade
380 - Latias - transfer
386 - Deoxys - ???
390 - Chimchar
391 - Monferno
392 - Infernape
431 - Glameow - trade
432 - Purugly - trade
490 - Manaphy - ???

Thankfully the ones crossed out or erased are already done, or obtained. instead of continuing to post over and over ill do this till I can eliminate all of em! go me!

Science'd

2010-04-20T10:17:00.000-06:00

Wow. Just wow.

George Hutcheson, a guy I've never heard of before takes his interest in Pokémon to a whole new level by writing a small article on the similarities of some species of Pokémon to the real life creatures theyre based around.

Honestly the article is both informative and pretty surprising in the effectiveness of its point: that Pokémon evolutions aren't science fiction but science fact.

And no I'm not a creationist, evolution is real, but Pokémon evolution carries traits that most people think to be impossible.

To sum it up real evolution is the adaptation of a species over thousands or millions of years.

Pokémon evolution is much quicker, taking only days or even hours, and in some cases are even triggered by external sources (i.e. trading, using a special item etc.). Not to mention that in the game unevolved Pokémon can breed at any stage where as creatures who undergo metamorphosis are unable to breed until they reach thier mature, post-metamorphosis state.

Interested in how the game and the scientific world share similarities in regards to the digital world of Pokémon?

Read on here: On the Origin of Species: Wooper by George Hutcheson

KICK-ASS or ASS KICK?

2010-04-19T16:40:00.000-06:00

You know I don't even know anymore.

I saw Kick-Ass on sunday and honesly i really liked it. It was only during the credits that i found out it is in fact based on a comic.

So naturally being a fan of the comics i looked it up.

i kinda wish i didn't

the Kick-Ass big screen adaption is almost like the big screen adaption of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. if youve read that then you know what i mean.

So is Kick-Ass based on a comic book?

yes, but not really.

Ya see, this movie fails where so many adaptions fail before it.

they change like ever fucking thing about the comic, then they say "hey thisll make a good movie". then before you know it you hacked and spliced enough times it went from looking like patrick swayze in dirty dancing to patrick swayze in too wong foo.

im going to pretend you didnt just say how much you liked too wong foo and continue.

oh, and fanboys, spoiler alert so if youre gonna whine and bitch about how i ruined the movie for you stop reading now.

First off the comic is a gritty take on why people dont become super heroes in real life. the message: life is not a comic and it just doesnt work.

the movie sends different message. super heroes dont exist in real life cause people didnt try hard enough.

now normally this would be such a bad thing, and the movie starts off much in the same way as the comic but about halfway through it makes a strange deviation.

It becomes some kinda happy go lucky super hero comedy.

Big Dady WAS a retired cop, framed for a crime he didn't commit by a new york drug kingpin. as opposed to a bored accountant who fights crime with his brainwashed daughter.

Kick-Ass DID get the girl and lived hapily ever after, only giving up the costume on her request, rather than getting rejected and his ass kicked by her new boyfriend upon revealing hes not gay to her

Kick-Ass's dad never gets involved with Lucille (who dies in the movie)

while these differences arent many, they completely change the mood and almost the focus of the entire movie. I'm not sure that Millar and Romita jr. have in store for the character in the future (theyve both stated a sequel book is in the works) but you can probably bet it will never be as happy or feel good as this movie turned out to be.

all in all my verdict is simple, if youve read the comic youll probably dislike the movie, if you havent, which im wagering is the category most people fall into, youll probably like it.

i give this movie a Katie Deauxma/10

Badges? We Dont Need No Stinking Badges!

2010-04-14T15:32:00.001-06:00

Actually we, err- I do. I just finished getting all 16 badges in HG/SS and i'm pretty damn proud of myself.

I've also managed to catch Articuno in the seafoam islands, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, and ive got Raikou running around with 1 hp!

As for working on my national Pokedex i also got the items to evolve Clamperl into its 2 evolutions, Gorebyss and Huntail so those are 2 more I can cross off. That and i caught a Miltank which i was lacking, and a Misdreavus (who has since been evolved to Mismagius) so thats a total of 8 more to the pokedex i didn't have before SS!

So all i really have waiting for me now in the game is to finish the legendary dog trio, storm Mt. Silver, fight the elite 4 at thier new levels and then hopefully find and beat Red!

And my team?

Well that would be:

"Numot" Dragonite (f) Lv.59, Lax, Inner Focus, Bright Powder

Dragon Dance
Dragon Pulse
Fly
Earthquake

"Lorthos" Feraligatr (m) Lv.60, Serious, Torrent, Lum Berry

Surf
Ice Fang
Crunch
Thrash

"Woe" Mismagius (m) Lv.60, Relaxed, Levitate, Lum Berry

Shadow Ball
Psybeam
Power Gem
Perish Song

"Rustspore" Ampharos (m) Lv.60, Naive, Static, Magnet

Charge Beam
Thunder Punch
Signal Beam
Power Gem

"Cracklebur" Flareon (m) Lv.59, Lax, Flash Fire, Charcoal

Fire Fang
Bite
Smog
Last Resort

"Djinn" Jirachi Lv.60, Serious, Serene Grace, Twisted Spoon

Wish
Future Sight
U-turn
Draco Meteor

Phones, Phones, Phones.

2010-04-07T09:42:00.000-06:00

Its been sort of a transitionary phase for me in the phones department. my Gravity was messing up severely, (not that it was ever any good) so my bro is trying to get it fixed. in the meantime he lent me his old Samsung Blackjack.

That was actually a little exciting cause its a phone i wanted when it came out.

I have no idea why.

that phone literally does nothing.

Now my friend has a Blackjack II. That phone does something. it actually does somethingS as in plural. its a neat phone. the first is not.

So then last night my mom lends me her old phone, a Samsung Behold. Now that phone is actually pretty cool and it has a great camera (5mega) its touchscreen and it lets me do things like SEARCH MY CONTACTS.

seriously aside from having better reception that Blackjack was worthless.

So i have this Behold nad its a pretty cool guy except for one thing. Its pink and has one of those Amy Brown fairy art skins.

So how bad did i want to ditch the Blackjack?

My sim card is now inside a pink Samsung Behold with an Amy Brown fairy art skin, thats how bad.

So now im dailing from a fruity phone and hoping and praying i get an iPhone soon

Pleeeeeaaasse!

A Mustering of 'Muchness'

2010-04-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend i bought the Almost Alice CD which is basically the "music imspired by the motion picture" CD, and not the original soundtrack, which would be all Danny Elfman songs anyways (not at all a bad thing).

Personally i love it. mind you i dont love EVERY song because well, quite frankly compilations are almost always hit or miss, but most of the album is actually quite good.

There are definatly some things you should know about it however before you purchase it if thats what you were thinking about. if you werent thinking that then theres really no need to read this however if you dont i will be sad and you certainly don't want that.

you wouldnt like me when i'm sad.... wait.

songs in the good category are Avril's track "Alice" which is the song that plays in the end credits of the movie, AAR's "The Poison", Owl City's "The Technicolor Phase", Robert Smith (of The Cure)'s "Very Good Advice", 3OH!3's "Follow Me Down", Motion City Soundtrack's "Always Running out of Time", and Valora's "Extreme" (although i have NO idea what it has to do with Alice in Wonderland).

Falling into the cool yet weird category is Franz Ferdinand's "The Lobster Quadrille" which is a musical performance of an actual poem from the book. Also in this category is They Might Be Giant's "" for the same reason. And of course the CD wouldnt be complete without a cover of Grace Slick's (and the rest of Jefferson Airplane) "White Rabbit". The cover version is pretty decent but the original is still better (Don't worry though, this one doesnt have a 7 minute hippie solo at the end)

And now for the bad. Ironically enough the songs i thought i would love, i ended up not liking. go figure. Pete Wentz and Mark Hoppus's "In Transit" leaves much to be desired. Same goes for Wolfmother's "Fall Down a Hole", and Shinedown's "The Name is Alice". As for another of the CD's singles, "Tea Party" by Kerli I give her points for enthusiasm but i didn't like the song much.

The rest of the songs not mentioned are decent at least but not really falling in any of the above categories.

Its not as good as Nightmare Revisted which was literally an awesome CD but i definatly don't regret my purchase.

And a word to the wise, the iTunes version comes with the Danny Elfman main theme as well as the They Might Be Giants song, where as the Hot Topic version comes with 3 extra tracks including the Velora track.

All in all i'd give the CD a Bandersnatch scratch/10!

The Absolution Monthly, Vol.1 Nov 2009 -PREVIEW-

2010-03-18T13:54:00.001-06:00

Funny ain't it?

Har-Har-HeartGold!

2010-03-17T17:01:00.002-06:00

Ok, i didnt actually get HeatGold, i just thought it would be funny if that was the title. What i did get is SoulSilver:

Now you may be telling yourself, Self, this is just a remake.

i'm here to tell you thats retarded.

Ok yes it is a remake, but its vastly different. the storyline has been beefed up, graphically it takes full advantage of the DS's graphics.

functionaly it takes full advantage of the DS system. you can actually use the touch screen for 99% of the games input. thats basically everything but moving your character.

Its also completly compatible with other generation IV games and you can use the pal park to transfer Pokémon from your generation III games.

It has a full online mode if you have wi-fi access that includes mini-games, trainer battles and other things like doodling and "spinning" (that im pretty sure that has nothing to do with bottles). they even have something called the pokéthalon which if the name is true sounds something akin to pokémon olympics.

and if that wasn't enough to get your blood pumping they have the Pokéwalker.

remember that annoying Pokémon Pikachu tamogatchi thing? its like that but better. it syncs to and from your gamepack directly, earning exp for the pokémon you choose for every step it counts in real life. and just like that older Pikachu one, it converts every 20 steps you take into 1 watt which can be used to buy more routes to walk on, encounter other pokémon in a minigame that can allow you to catch these pokémon and transfer them back to your game, or find hidden items along your route that can also transfer to your game. and when all is said and done take your pokémon from the walker back to your gamepack and choose another to walk with you instead.

if that wasn't enough if you meet someone with a pokéwalker also, you can connect to each other via infared and earn an item to transfer back to your game. from what i understand they can also battle via the pokéwalkers simplified battle system. (much like rock, paper, scissors)

now if you aren't a pokemon fan this probably sounds mediocre to you and i guess theres no helping that. but for anyone who was left hungering for Gold/Silver because of the games incompatibility with newer handhelds and gen III and on games, this is your time to shine.

and the icing on the cake is all the cool interconnectivity between it and Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Already in my SoulSilver game i have an exclusive pokéwalker route (via Jirachi trade), a SoulSilver special sprite pokémon (via Pikachu-colored Pichu trade), and when i finally make it to the area in the game, my Arceus trade will get me a lvl 1 Palkia, Giratina, or Dialga.

all in all it leads me to spending another gross amoun of time playing another Pokémon game while anxiously awaiting new Generation V

HG/SS Bonus Events!

2010-03-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

With Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver coming out there are 2 new Pokemon events going on that you should know about.

The first is the Draco Meteor Jirachi. This event is at Gamestop only, so make sure you head there. Jirachi is availble from Feburary 27th-March 13th.

All you have to do is go to Gamestop and turn on your DS and Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum Pokemon game.

From the main menu (where you select your game save, or start new game) go to recieve gift, then to "Via wireless connection".

Jirachi should pop up as a gift right away so if not ask the Gamestop clerk if the station is turned on (it may not be, bastards!).

Then simply recieve gift, start your game, then head to the Pokemart in Jublife city (with at least one slot open in your party!) and viola, you have a level 5 Jirachi that knows an exclusive move, Draco Meteor!

From there, when HG/SS comes out you can transfer this Jirachi to that game (make sure it still knows Draco Meteor!) and you will unlock a special cutscene in the game as well as an exclusive new path on your Pokewalker!

The other promotion is the Pikachu colored Pichu availible via the wi-fi connection so you can do this from anywhere you can connect to the internet via nintendo wi-fi connection. (Be warned although the DSi supports WPA and WPA2 encryption type networks the Pokemon games DO NOT so you will need to find a WEP or unencrypted connection to use)

The Pikachu colored Pichu promotion runs March 5th-March 26th

To get this one simply go to Jublife T.V. in Jublife City and go to the 3rd floor.

Talk to the producer and give him your opinion on T.V. (Say: Everyone Happy)

Then give him your feedback on T.V. (Say: Wi-Fi Connection)

The producer will confirm you're "in the know" and says he will arrange for something for you. SAVE YOUR GAME (important!) then restart.

From the main menu (where you select your game save, or start a new game) go to reviece gift, then to "Via Wi-Fi". (Make sure you are currently configured to whatever access point you're using.)

It might take a few moments but the Pikachu colored Pichu should appear.

Then simply recieve gift, start your game, then head to the Pokemart in Jublife city (with at least one slot open in your party!) and you'll get the shiny level 30 Pichu!

And of course when HG/SS comes out you can trade this Pokemon to that game to unlock a special cutscene in Ilex Forest Shrine in which you befriend the "Spiky-Eared" Pichu, a Pichu with a special design based on the Pokemon movie "Arceus and the Jewel of Life". From there you can catch him as well!

Concerning the World of Warcraft TCG

2010-02-19T10:39:00.001-07:00

you know card games are a shaky business, its so easy to fail making a new card game. you can have a lack of organized play, bad marketing, hell you can have a bad game period. even just trying to create a player base when other games dominate the market is difficult. that being said, probably my second favorite card game out there is being put on hiatus.

the World of Warcraft TCG, which you may have read me praising for its wealth of gameplay types, great player inscentives, price, and all around good game design is being put on hold for quite literally the dumbest reason ever.

bad press.

seriously out of everything that couldve pulled the game it had to be that?!

now i dont claim to know the whole story but let me explain. I first saw this post on WoW.com (not to be confused with the official site worldofwarcraft.com)

http://www.wow.com/2010/02/17/upper-deck-comments-on-loss-of-wow-tcg-license/

my first reaction whats "AWHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT?"

thats right complete with sideways head turning.

why the hell would Upper Deck do anything like counterfeiting? apparently, at one point they held a liscence for Yu-Gi-Oh, to what extent i don't know but in some capicity. after this liscence was lost, they continued printing cards allegedly and Konami sued them.

well after following the chain of articles the picture began to clear up a bit

http://www.wow.com/2010/02/12/blizzard-wow-tcg-will-come-back-better-than-ever?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_wowinsider

http://www.wow.com/2010/02/12/upper-deck-and-wow-tcg-parting-ways?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_wowinsider

and the even older post (over 92 days old -- thats 3 months!)

http://www.wow.com/2009/11/15/rumors-of-wow-tcgs-demise-greatly-exaggerated?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_wowinsider

after all of this its hard to see how this wasn't comming, but all in all it basically points to several factors, and despite which are true and which aren't, it seems like the WoW TCG was destined to get away from UDE no matter what.

curious about all this i went to the Upper Deck site for the WoW TCG, no mention there of losing the liscence (big surprise), but on the Upper deck main page i did find these:

http://www.upperdeck-international.com/tabid/56/language/en-US/Default.aspx?AnnouncementID=20

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/ude/en/articles.aspx?aid=7453

I didnt bother checking Konami's site, this confirmed for me all i needed to know. UDE was sued for violating liscencing agreements. is it so hard to believe they might lose contracts because of the negative publicity?

not really.

is it hard to believe they would play the bad ecnomy card to try and save face in light of negative allegations to their comany?

not really.

its also no secret that Blizzard and UDE worked very closely on the WoW TCG, to what extent was the work done who knows, but if it is true that Blizzard has had a majority in the planning and development, maybe they say this as an easy way to bring things in house or to another company of their choice.

at this point anything is possible, but to anyone out there who loved this TCG as much as me, make sure you use any UDE points you have left over, and any unredeemed loot cards. cause theres no telling what will happen to them after march.

im not sure what to make of the crafting redemption issue, i myself was planning on redeeming some just recently, but i guess i have nothing to really lose by sending them in. hopefully theyll be able to honor everything they recieve before a certain date.

there will also probably be a snatch and grab for cards before march, but i think that waiting for sales from either UDE, just before they lose thier liscence or from the distributors they sell what they can of thier stock to before hand. i do expect some good deals for packs and boxes online.

but most of all im keeping my fingers crossed that the game does come back, or that the format of the game doesnt change. Id hate for all my old cards to be useless if they bring the game to a new company and they change it up.

heres to hoping.

James T. Shepard!

2010-02-16T15:00:00.001-07:00

and of course as awesome as DA:O is, you know i still had to put it down in favor of (surprise) Bioware's sequal to the awesome game Mass Effect.

cause nothing beats galavanting about the galaxy and screwing alien chicks!

...oh and saving the known galaxy from anihilation

hands down the best thing about the game is you can import your character from the first game.

some people (including me) had trouble importing characters at first but replaying the game from your last save on the first game really quick will fix that (last save is usually an auto save just before fighting Saren's "final form" so its only like 5 mins). but importing your character is so awesome, starting a new character is really kind of a shame. it imports your class and appearance both of which you can alter if you choose too, but most importantly it imports a certain ammount of your characters gained renegade or paragon attributes, and all of your previous games sidequests and backstory info. remember Conrad Verner? oh yeah hes back with a side quest. Reporter on the citadel? prepare to be harrased by her again. Remember the colonists from Feros? you get a side quest after checking up on them! not to mention your character relationships from past games play a role still with extra scenes or unique dialogue lines when you run into those characters again.

the gameplay itself however is alot different from the first. the RPG elements have been scaled down but as much as it sounds like a bad thing its really not. the shooting and action are much more fluid in this game, creating more of a sense of urgency since you dont have to go to the wheel menu ever 5 seconds for a biotic, tech, or weapon power. and while there still are abilities to use, 3 can be mapped to hotkeys for instant use, and some have even been combined (for intance instead of having pistol marksman, carnage, overkill, and assassination, soldiers in mass effect 2 have adrenaline rush, which works for all weapons)

your weapons no longer have to be leveled up individually either, leveling one job specific trait will increase the damage for all the weapons that character can use as well as other things like your renegade and paragon gain rate, health, or biotic and tech powers. this allows for less time contemplating where exactly to put each point but still lets you choose which skills to focus on and which to ignore.

also your weapons are static, no longer can you use an untrained weapon at the cost of your aim and accuracy, you are forced to only have the weapons your character can use period. thankfully each job can have at least 3 weapons including the new heavy weapons, and in some cases the new SMG gun class.

and as much as i loved the Mako im a bit glad to see it go. being the kind of guy i am i tended to explore each and every inch of a planet surface just in case something of real value was laying around. most times there wasnt. but not you drop straight into missions on planets that have them via the new dropship, and for resources (which actually serve a purpose in this game!) can be scanned from orbit and have probes sent to collect them for you, taking less than half the time of a mako tour.

the missions and quests even feel different, the missions are more plentiful, but less long. and considering how i talked about mission length for DA:O im rather pleased about that. you have both a recruitment and a loyalty quest for each character, totalling 18 character related quests, with more side quests availible during missions or from other characters on the normandy, quests are still found while randomly scanning planets, and on occasion from Admiral Hacket or the Illusive Man.

and completely new are renegade and paragon actions... at certain times during normal diologue sequences you will be given the ability to press either the right or left triggers for an awesome actions-speak-louder-than-words moment that changes the course of the conversation. for instance growing tired of listening to a low level eclipse boss give me attitude as to why he wont give me the info i want i literally kicked him through the window of a 50 story building. now he'll have time to think about why he shoulda cooperated with me on the way down! LOL

also new this time around is the Normandy itself, there are now 5 decks, your captain's quarters, the command information center (CIC), crew's quarters, the engineering deck, and the cargo bay. and THANKFULLY its not a 10 minute elevator ride between them. there is however a loading screen but it can go as quickly as 15 seconds if you load the game to and play it from your hard drive.

and the final mission is so totally epic its almost perfect, depending on all the missions you ran pior, your upgrades, and who of your team is loyal to you the mission can go tons of different ways. youre even given choices on who to let handle certain situations. with your choices determing not only the success of the mission, but whether or not your characters live or die.

and theres more love insterests to choose from too. i wonder what Tali looks like under the suit...

*ahem*

and of course the game as lovely as it is cannot escape my criticism :(

one thing i miss is the Mako (wait didnt i just say i liked it being gone? wait for it....) missions (oh!). driving around on certain planets was actually pretty cool, Noveria especially and nothing beats the feeling of driving around in a tank with a kinetic shield. there are obviously no longer any driving missions in this game and i kinda wish there was. now thankfully the rumor mill suggests there will be one coming in a DLC featuring an upgraded Mako but i'll have to cross my fingers and see

and aside from the cliffhanger ending my really only other gripe is the lack of time with Legion. i wont go into details cause itll spoil it for ya, but you get him at the end of the game and you dont really have much time to try him out before the end.

also theres no worthwhile lesbian love intrest! WHHHYYYYYYY? well you can bang Kelly Chambers as a female Shepard but she wont net you the paramour achivement. BLAST!

this game gets a bangin' Tali/10

Dragon Age: Outstanding!

2010-02-16T14:00:00.002-07:00

I'm alive.

no really, i've just been a hermit...

as usual.

Its been video game time for me since the release of 2 incredibly awesome video games.

first i was derailed by is Dragon Age: Origins.

i have to say, screenshots or trailers for the game didn't really make it look amazing. they focus more on showing a couple short FMV sequences and some gameplay, which normally would be a good thing, but RPGs dont have the same kind of flashy gameplay as other games.

but trust me the game is awesome. you can definatly play it a few times cause the replay value is amazing. each main quest can have at least 2 ways to go through it, sometimes more, with 2 different outcomes which heavily impacts the game's endings.

and with character creation you can pick one of 3 races, each with a choice of backstory, and without that job select up to 2 unique specializations. my rough math says theres 72 different characters possible counting only combonations of race, backstory, job, and combos of 2 specializations. thats not counting choices of gender, positive or negative alignment, different choices made during the main quests, the side characters you choose to join you, or any of the multiple endings you can get.

i'm not good enough at math to figure that out.

if that doesnt impress you maybe the fact that there is a varitable cornicopia of love instrests, tons of sidequests including character specific sidequests given to you by your companions, and some very challenging optional bosses. not to mention theres already 3 DLC already out one of which includes a fully integrated new character. not to mention blood dragon armor for this and Mass Effect 2 if you bought the game (which you should you pirating ninnies)

if that wasnt enough March brings us Dragon Age: Awakening, a full game expansion with 5 new companions, a new main story line, new areas and an all new origin story.

phheeeewwwww... sorry gotta take a breath there. lol

theres only two things i dont like about the game. first its bloody hard sometimes. i really suggest taking the time to completely reprogram certain characters tactics (its a series of cause and effect senarios for the ai to prioritize during battle) to make them more effective. the spirit healer character you can recruit has such a horrible tactics set its a miracle she gets off a single healing spell. that ones got to go. also any tanking character you leave to AI should also be reprogrammed. doing this makes battles go smoother but there still plenty of frustrating "Your journey ends..." screens. in fact, i actually had to lower the difficulty on some fights after dying 10+ in the same situation.

the other thing is the length of some of the main story missions. im not a 15 yr old kid with hours and hours with which to play games anymore, and i like to usually play a quest or a mission straight through before turning it off, so on some of the missions the length was a little much. the mages circle in particular was a little too long for my taste as that one mission can take a couple hours if you let it. so stock up on potions and get all the extra inventory spaces you can, cause thats a doozy. keep in mind the length of the game itself is actually quite good, its really just the length of certain missions that gets a bit tedious.

all in all i love the game and cannot wait to get Awakening. i'm sure ill talk about that plenty when it comes out.

i give this game a solid fuedal lordship/10

Army of the Dead

2009-12-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

This here is my new Death Knight deck in the World of Warcraft TCG. they came out with a mini set of something like 40 cards to introduce the Death Knight class including 2 heros, 1 horde and 1 alliance.

despite that they didnt feature anything death knight related until 2 set releases later, in Scourgewar, so i had to really put my Death Knight deck on the back burner for lack of a clear focus.

now that Scourgewar is out theres alot more abilities and a few more heros to choose from so i think i can confidently put my first Unholy foot forward! lol.

Hero: Saeryn Dusksorrow

Abilities (18):

4x Deathcoil
2x Army of the Dead
2x Raise Dead
3x Icy Touch
3x Death Pact
2x Mind Freeze
2x Arcane Torrent

Equipment (7):

4x Runed Soulblade
3x Scourgeborne Battlegear

Allies (19):

2x Deathcharger
4x Drandus the Deathcaller
4x Vanessa Fairgraves
2x "Fungus Face" McGillicutty
2x "Acid Hands" McGillicutty
3x Boneshanks
1x Ethereal Plunderer
1x Conqueror Kagon Blackskull

Quests (16):

3x Betrayal
3x Chasing A-Me 01
2x Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!
3x Hazardous Materials
3x Brothers in Death
2x Solanian's Belongings

So first what we have is basically Ghoul beatdown. you put some ghouls out, you attack, you untap em, attack again. so on and so forth. "how do you bring ghouls out?" you may ask. well the answer is simple. kill allies!

unfortunatly most of the time its your own allies you need to kill. so if thats the case, why not play allies that are happy for the grave anyway?

Thats why most of the allies in my deck have going into the graveyard effects. like Vanessa Fairgraves. for 3 you get a 3 Attack 3 Health ally that says "When vanessa is destroyed, put a ghoul ally token into play with 3 [melee] atk / 3 health." that and guys like Boneshanks and "Fungus Face" McGillicutty make destroying your own allies not so bad.

so once theyre dead you put out a Drandus the Deathcaller or two and attack away with your ghouls for great justice! (or lack thereof!)

and if anyone catches a beat on ya, just hit him with the Army of the Dead! Bwuahahahahahahahahahaha!

Here Wii Go!

2009-12-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Well, My birthday was pretty awesome.

you know, if any of you cared :p

first we went for sushi at my favorite sushi restaurant, Sakura Sushi (on Lee Trevino past Pebble Hills GO THERE!) with my dear wife and friends and then back to my place for cards, video games and desert!

My lovely wife got me New Super Mario Bros Wii which if you dont yet know is the 4 player old-school-style Mario game for Wii.

since its 4 players theres basically 2 modes, cooperative, where youre *supposed* to help each other and complete levels, and coin battle where you try to see which one of you can get the most coins from the group.

now i say "supposed to" because frankly its pretty damn hard not to knock your friends off ledges and into lava, off a platform floating above a cliff, or straight into the path of a hammer bro. and dont even get me started on the green and red shells!

now, although its hard as hell to not kill each other in coop mode, dont let that dissuade you. good times were had by all, no matter how many times you heard someone shout "damn you! that was my fire flower!". in fact i think people were so wrapped up in playing NSMBW that people forgot i even had Super Smash Bros Brawl.

after all that i watched funny people (actually a very good movie) and then played some WoW TCG against Mike and then went to sleep.

and that was the day BEFORE my birthday. lol

actually we celebrated sat so we didnt do much on my actual birthday, just applebees and playing Fallout 3. Rock!

Wish List

2009-12-12T09:33:00.002-07:00

Well cause its getting close to ~~christmas~~ birthday i thought i'd make a list of stuff i want

you know.... cause i want it

Nintendo DS:
Pokemon Heartgold
Glory of Heracles
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
~~Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days~~
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Xbox 360:
Halo: Reach Collectors Edition
Fable III Collectors Edition
Fallout: New Vegas Collectors Edition
Green Day Rock Band
Dragon Age: Awakening
Final Fantasy XIII
~~Halo 3: ODST~~
Borderlands
~~Dragon Age: Origins~~
~~Mass Effect 2: Limited Edition~~
Microsoft Points

PSP:
Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker Collectors Edition
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
~~Final Fantasy Dissidia~~
Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny

Wii:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
~~New Super Mario Bros. Wii~~
Nintendo Points

Cards:
Wrathgate booster packs (WoW TCG)
~~Scourgewar booster packs (WoW TCG)~~
Fields of Honor booster packs (WoW TCG)
Zendikar booster packs (Magic:tG)
Worldwake booster packs (Magic:tG)

Others:
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Collectors Edition (PC)
Halo Lengends (2 disc DVD or Blu-Ray)
Star Trek Online Collectors Edition (PC)
Speed Racer Manga Collector's Box Set
~~an iPhone (preferably 3G or 3GS)~~
~~Mass Effect Redemtion (Comic, Darkhorse)~~

My Xbox 360 is Inspector Gadget...

2009-11-19T11:00:00.001-07:00

Remember that show? lol., well it does have everything to do with the point im trying to make so i'll run it down for you.

Inspector Gadget was a secret agent who's body was augmented with all sorts of gadgets to help him in his espionage. in actuality he was kind of a loser and his gadgets although cool, never helped him much. it always came down to his niece Penny and her dog to help him save the day and accomplish his missions

ok, what the hell does this have to do with my Xbox? well they just added 4 new distinct features to the Xbox 360 console a couple days ago, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, and the Zune Marketplace.

The Facebook and Twitter tabs are an Xbox 360 way to bring social networking to games. mostly its just a slightly watered version of the 2 current most popular social networking sites (cutting out the facebook aps, and facebook chat functions only). Its good for you if the computer is currently occupied (or dead if youre like me :/ ) but otherwise the web version will still be your best bet. Twitter is twitter so if youre all about the tweeting than its pretty much the same actually lol.

Last.fm is quite cool, ice never heard of it before but it builds radio stations around particular artists that stream songs by them and by bands of singers that are similar. if all you want are the popular singers, listen to your top 40 station back home, but this is a great tool for finding new or less popular bands. and thankfully if there is too much you dont like, there is a skip button or simply move to a new station. the absolute best part is after youve browsed other stations and told Last.fm what you like, it can build you a radio station with your favorite songs/genres. the only problem with this is it doesnt run behind anything else. you cant listen to this with custom soundtracks or anything. so if youre like me and when you actually DO get a chance to use your Xbox, you probably wont waste time by listening to Last.fm, no matter how cool it is.

and last but not least is the Zune marketplace. this isnt an add-on so much as its an update. they are now using the Zune marketplace for all Xbox Live marketplace media downloads. i'm not sure if game DLC is also through the Zune marketplace, but i think its just music, videos, and movies. the good news is theyve added a couple features like viewing parties where people on your Xbox Live friends list can come in and watch streaming videos with you in a mystery science theater 3000 kinda way. the good news is since all this is from the Zune marketplace theres more content now in the movie and tv categories, yay!

Now what does this have to do with Inspector Gadget? I feel about most of these exactly what i feel about Inspector gadget. Alot of cool features, but he still can't get the job done alone. Xbox has had a recent decline of 360 exclusives in the last year, and although alot of former Playstation exclusive developers are taking games to both consoles Microsoft needs to encourage developers to go Xbox onry! Thats what will sell consoles, not fancy features, not project natal, not Facebook and Twitter for Xbox Live. and while these things are great and add a wide range of things you can do with the console, none of them truly expand on what people buy the console in the first place: the games.

Like Christmas... in November....

2009-11-17T11:22:00.001-07:00

Today is a good day.

No seriously, as far as days go there will probably be only 3 others this year that will that have been/will be better.

one is Christmas, what? i love presents.

another will be my birthday... once again... presents, awesome.

and of course, the most shining day this year will be my wedding day, (not that its why it will be awesome, but coincidently will be another present giving occasion...)

but today ranks firmly on the 4th most awesome day of the year award. why?

presents, of course!

Today marks the release of not one, not two, but THREE awesome things.

Left 4 Dead 2
Assassin's Creed II
Star Trek on DVD&Blu-Ray

What makes today so awesome is that i will have (sorta) all three today!

My lovely soon-to-be bride bought Left 4 Dead 2 and we decided to go at midnight to go pick it up. while there we saw all the lovely Assassin's Creed II boxes, and because she is quite literally the most awesome female in the world, she basically bought me Assassin's Creed II there to pick up at midnight. (see now why my wedding day is going to be so awesome, i get to MARRY her!)

so at midnight we picked 2 of the biggest game releases of the year!

and of course Star Trek will be waiting at home thanks to my wonderful mother!

and on a sort-of-completely unrelated note, c'mon people, stop decorating for Christmas, its not even thanksgiving. Pilgrims everywhere are calling bullshit on Jesus and Santa for encroaching on their only 15 minutes of fame

100 to go!

2009-11-05T17:01:00.001-07:00

yup thats right, 393/493 obtained pokémon!

damn i have no life.... :(

Once your diggin'

2009-11-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Well the Pokédex is coming along rather nicely if you havent seen this recently. just for shits and giggles i checked Bulbapedia on some random things yesterday and came across the trainer stars article.

seems if you accomplish certain feats you get stars for your trainer case that also changes the backround color of your trainer card.

now this isnt a huge deal but if you complete the Pokédex with all the non event exclusive Pokémon you get a star.

since that is totally possible for me, and im heading in that direction anyway i decided to see what else i could do in the meantime to add some more stars to my trainer case.

one is in the Underground:

now, ive been here before. to get Spiritomb i had to talk to "myself" 30-something times.

i say myself because i was supposed to talk to another person, but instead i just talked to myself between my diamond and platinum games.

well its a return to the same formula this time around as i think ill be capturing my own flag over and over from one game to the other, hell i might just build my bases in each game right next to each other haha, hows that for a loop hole huh?

and while im down there i'll pick up a couple water stones, lord knows i need em to evolve my staryu and shellder :(

It's Over 9000!!!!11

2009-10-30T10:17:00.000-06:00

and by It's i mean my Xbox live gamerscore

a.k.a. my dickhat.

actually it has been for a little while but i guess it never really occured to me

lets see.... what else is new........

i made this for my Deviant art ID:

i think its nifty i dont know aout you. its officially the first FFXI related artwork ive completed in fireworks since i got it... say... i dunno a year ago?

yeah i know i poke it. anyways

Halloween is tomorrow and if anyone i know decides to be not lame and dress up ill post pics

damn, what a boring blog entry....

Venum Dare

2009-10-29T16:10:00.001-06:00

Heres a little ditty about jack and REGIGIGAS...

wait... thats not how it goes

well im on deviant art... you may have noticed as i have a widget on the sidebar on my blog here that shows my 4 most recent entries or whatever. i dunno it may be 5

anyways while on there i got a bit of encouragement from "CalgaryCosplay" so naturaly i commented back. while on the site i saw they sell cosplay hoodies, all of which actually look pretty good, some of them are quite intricate in fact

so i got to thinking, wouldnt it be cool to show off my extreme geekiness by ordering one?

so then i got to thinking, wait, dont i know an awesome designer?

so then i got to thinking wait, dont i know an awesome seamstress chick?

so then i got to thinking... wait for it... I CAN PLAN IT AND I CAN HAVE MY FRIEND MAKE IT!

pretty awesome huh? i rock.

in fact, seeing this i thought even further about suggesting that my friend do something like this to actually make money.

you should see the WHM cosplay pants she made her fiancee last year, theyre quite awesome. i know people would be willing to pay for it, and since its something she could do in her spare time i think its something she can legitimately consider.

we'll see if she wants to, but ill definatly pay her to make some stuff for me, namely that hoodie, and a Commodore Tricorne...

that would be sexy....

Avast ye Heatran!

2009-10-26T16:39:00.000-06:00

Made this in Fireworks this morning, like? If Heatran were a pirate he would defiantly fly this flag!

Har har har!

anyways... My pokédex is coming along awesomely

i've figured theres only 2 i can never catch/obtain without cheating, both were available through one-time nintendo special events :(

(Deoxys and Celebi in case youre wondering)

as for tonight, if i have the time i have 2 pursuits: Catching Heatran in Platinum and catching Feebas

and what a pain in the ass that last ones gonna be :(

From first to last

2009-10-16T17:01:00.008-06:00

For those of you who just dont know...

the last pokemon, Arceus will finally be availible for download by heading out to toys'r'us stores and downloading the item Azure Flute Arceus via mystery gift. (free in case you were wondering)

of course since i already announced my plan to catch as many if not all 493 pokémon i can this is a big deal.

now i just gotta worry about being the only 24 year old guy surrounded byt a bunch of kids. to prevent free candy/windowless van jokes maybe i can just download it from the parking lot...

GIT ME SOME LEARNIN'!

2009-10-13T10:42:00.003-06:00

I know, i know its been like FOREVER since i posted anything FFXI related.

what can i say, i was going through a non-FFXI phase or something

in any case i'm back now and ill prolly play a couple times a week (more than the once a week, if even, i was playing before lol)

and because im Corsair is very well merrited at this point i thought i would take some time off from that and level another job i like: Scholar

yessum, its no wonder what the people at the Square-Enix design team were thinking when they designed the AF for this job...

in any case i got it from 27 to 29 yesterday night in a LS low level manaburn that was simply awesome, we were taking IT mandies in Yhoater Jungle with 4 Black Mages, me (SCH/BLM), and a Bard.

and when 2 of us had to leave we moved back to Yuhntunga and took gobbies with just us 4

of course im a little over 1k tnl and i think im going to solo some worms in Qufim tonight so i can round myself off to 30 and get Addendum: Black! (hurray for having a sleep spell finally!)

which brings me to a point... i'll need spells.

the only other traditional mage jobs i have are WHM at 59, BLM at 17, and RDM at 25.

I'm covered for awhile on white magic... but as you can imagine im a bit lacking in the black magic department.

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

2009-09-28T16:04:00.007-06:00

... and GOD DAMN is it hard!

ugh, seriously did you all know theres 493 Pokémon in total across 4 generations of games?

its a little unfair when you think about it.

so right now, in my Platinum game im at 309(seen) and in my Diamond game im at 378(seen)

notable Pokémon im missing: damn near everything from the Gold/Silver/Crystal games, Mew, Mewtwo, Celebi, Jiraichi, Deoxys, Arceus, Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Manaphy, Lugia, Ho-oh, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Regigias, Latias, Latios, Kygore, Groudon, and Rayquaza.

*breathes deeply*

in Pokémon terms, thats like a million, cause some of those are only available through limited time events.

i was lucky enough to get Darkrai, Shaymin and Phione which are normally part of that event Pokémon genre.

the ones above i *can* get will require hundres more hours of play across several GBA games :( why oh why did i ever decide to try to complete my pokédex?

P.S. This is my Platinum trainer card, with my Platinum friend number thingy, feel free to give me your number and we can battle and all that stuff.

Magic: The Gathering - The Untouchables v2.0

2009-09-23T09:33:00.013-06:00

heres an oldy but goody, something i made for shits and giggles back in the day, i really liked the way it played so i decided to bring it back as part of a "the best of Absolutezero" collection.

cause out of all the decks ive ever built, there are 4 ive always loved most.

This is one.

the other decks in this collection are a black/green Spiritmonger deck during the Apocalypse/Odyssey block, a black/blue Nightmare deck when Torment was out, and a blue/black/green Future Sight/Morph deck that got out creatures of all colors really fast around the Onslaught block

So without further ado, i give you "The Untouchables!"

Creatures (21):

1x Phage, The Untouchable
4x Shadowmage Infiltrator
4x Cephalid Pathmage
3x Withered Wretch
4x Crypt Creeper
2x Painbringer
2x Organ Grinder

Spells (19):

4x Web of Inertia
3x Gravestorm
4x Grip of Amnesia
3x Grave Consequences
3x Mortiphobia
3x Lost in Thought

Lands (20):

4x Drowned Catacomb
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
3x Sunken Ruins
4x Watery Grave
4x Island
4x Swamp

The whole point, is Phage is really just a distraction, if you win with her great, but theres only 1 in the deck for a reason.

unblockable creatures are perfect since you can do small amounts of damage the opponent is willing to let slip past as long as Phage doesnt get to them

its magical how gullible people are sometimes aint it?

to help speed up the price theres also Nefarious Lich which if timed right can win the game with a single unblockable critter on the board. dont let it bite you in the ass though, as your graveyard will be just as scarce as your opponents.

theres a decent amount of card drawing to speed this up a bit, with Gravestorms and the Finkels (a.k.a. Shadowmage Infiltrator)

and to top it all off if you thought you EVER had to worry about being attacked, theres also Web of Inertia, the best swarm control since Hissing Miasma (which ironically came AFTER.... oh well)

Might as well get in on the action!

2009-09-22T13:23:00.002-06:00

Made this using Fireworks and uploaded to I'mma let you finnish .com, aka http://kanyegate.tumblr.com/

Enjoy!

Magic: The Gathering - Metallic Dreams v2.0

2009-09-08T14:10:00.010-06:00

Well as i mentioned before, i got that Metallic Dreams deck in Planechase. the deck as a whole has a workable theme, and is pretty random at times, but i say potential it wasnt quite living up to. enter the tinkerer, i.e. me. i spent that whole afternoon making it better than what it was and this is pretty much where ive arrived at:

Metallic Dreams v2.0

Artifact Creatures (19):

3x Arcbound Slith
1x Arcbound Ravager
2x Arcbound Stinger
2x Spincrusher
1x Arcbound Reclaimer
1x Arcbound Crusher
1x Triskelion
1x Pentavus
1x Arcbound Overseer
1x Silver Myr
1x Leaden Myr
1x Iron Myr
1x Master of Etherium
1x Master Transmuter
1x Bosh, Iron Golem

Non-artifact Creatures (8):

1x Vedalken Engineer
1x Qumulox
1x Broodstar
2x Krark-Clan Stoker
2x Atog
1x Megatog

Non-creature Artifacts (10):

1x Time Sieve
2x Armillary Sphere
2x Pentad Prism
1x Cranial Plating
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Nuisance Engine
1x Serum Tank
1x Darksteel Forge

Spells (1):

1x Thirst for Knowledge

Lands (22):

2x Seat of the Synod
7x Island
1x Vault of Whispers
3x Swamp
2x Great Furnace
7x Mountain

I know it seems pretty scattered but i kept over half the cards in the original precontrusted but definatly lost that hippie WUBRG crap this deck had going on.

rainbows are for hippies and gays!

actually scratch that, i think even the gay community gave up rainbows.

after that i added some flavor from an old Modular deck i had going, with Spincrushers and Triskelions for improved counter useage.

so all in all i think the deck will play faster and harder than before all while still functioning very well with the Planar deck Metallic Dreams 1.0 originally came with. i might even change it a bit more in the future depending on how it plays both solo and in Planechase!

Take a (planes)walk on the wild side!

2009-09-08T11:37:00.006-06:00

Well this weekend was the Planechase release event weekend and me and a couple friends went over to my Ita's store (Sunrise Games and Comics) and had ourselves a mini Planechase event.

i myself picked up the Strike Force and Metallic Dreams decks.

Strike Force had awesome cards included and was built fairly well as i can tell (as i didnt get to play it much; i lent it to a friend to use in our 3-way game) but the Metallic Dreams was a must because it had the Planar cards i wanted most.

Anyways, Planechase was hilarious and fun.

Game 1 went well enough. i was taken out a little early on, but the game started to get interesting when we all exchanged life totals a million times due to the Cliffside Markets in Mercadia.

Game 2 saw all players near crying as 50-60% of everyones librarys got milled cause of Arkhos's Lethe Lake, and our unluckiness of not being able to planeswalk away for several turns. needless to say the Zombie Empire player took that win >.>

And dont even get me started on our 3rd game,the Sea of Sand in Rabiah killed us off after a player used Bond of Agony (we started using our own decks instead of playing the preconstructed ones at this point)

The 4th game was hilarious simply because we had goats everywhere, and my 17/17 Lorescale Coatl was the only thing dealing damage when I put down Segovia's Hippodrome! not to mention the Malestrom is always fun when it throws an Ascendent Evincar on the table and does a mass slaughter on goats, board-wide!

All in all the game is great, there arent really many new things to learn, just very briefly about how to use the Planar deck and the only other thing to really keep in mind is that the first player does draw a card in multiplayer games of Planechase. its really something that Magic needed, someting new that didnt seem forced or gimicky.

and thankfully Planechase delivers just that!

Magic: The Gathering - Jace of Spades v1.1

2009-08-27T15:27:00.003-06:00

Excuse the corny name for the deck, i couldn't resist!

This one, like so many of my other Magic decks is Black/Blue.

I was still dissapointed overall in the Alara block but i got over it and with the addition of Magic 2010 (the new core set) i have regained some of my faith in this once excellent card game. (more about that in a later post - promise!)

so without further ado... Jace of Spades!

Planeswalker - 3

3x Jace Beleren

Spells - 29

4x Underworld Dreams
4x Sign in Blood
4x Howling Mine
2x Font of Mythos
2x Twincast
3x Dream Fracture
2x Countersquall
2x Soul Manipulation
2x Doom Blade
4X Call to Heel

Creatures - 8

4x Tidehollow Strix
4x Parasitic Strix

Lands - 22

3x Drowned Catacomb
3x Taramorphic Expanse
8x Swamp
8x Island

Now now, i know what youre thinking.... playing with a planeswalker? for shame!

im pretty ashamed actually, ive been bitching about them since they first came out

but as i was pouring over the new type 2 cards when M10 was released i saw the chance to do something i haven't been able to do well in type 2 for some time: make an Underworld Dreams deck.

Sure Wheel and Deal is out, sure the lack of Psychic Possession makes the deck a tad weaker, yes theres no more Teferi's Puzzlebox awesomeness... but there is this guy...

Good ol' Jace Beleren.

that and a few other very cool cards like Sign in Blood make for a (new) one-two punch with the 'Dreams.

Now if youve ever played a Underworld Dreams deck its pretty simple, get 'Dreams out (fast) and then flood thier hand like theres no tomorrow.

the Strixes are for chump blocking and stalling, and the counters and bounce are for annoying the living crap out of your opponent.

what blue does best eh?

now this is really only how it exists right now, using only Alara block cards and M10 cards (since lolLorwyn/Shadowmoor is leaving type 2 soon) so i hope some more fuel for the fire will be added in the upcomming Zendikar set!

P.S. YES, i know its 62 cards :p

P.P.S. Taking advantage of the fact Lorwyn/Shadowmoor cards are still Type 2 im temporarily substituting Cancels for Dream Fractures, more card drawing FTW afterall! (at least til Oct, when Zendikar bumps the Lorwyn block out)

District 9

2009-08-17T11:52:00.012-06:00

Well... I saw District 9 on sunday

and before i tell you what i think i want to tell you that recent years have been sparcely decorated with a handful of sci-fi movies, some of them not even good, some of the lost in the bluster of the starring actors or big hollywood budgets

i thought District 9 was amazing.

and before you say "well i thought it was good, But not AMAZING" remember my previous statement.

Aside from a few other good sci-fi movies District 9 has a feel to it no sci-fi movie has had in almost a generation.

and it doesnt need big names or actors to do it.

So go see it, wether youre a sci-fi fan or not you wont be dissapointed, and if its one of your first forays into the genre it will definatly be a good experience for you!

I give this movie a Cat Food/10 (see the movie and youll understand :p)

Spectacle...

2009-08-13T17:09:00.005-06:00

Ok kiddos, were gonna talk for a minute about the state of the next generation.

cause its a bit scary frankly.

no, im not talking about the way they dress. everyone dresses stupidly in their youth

case in point:

its also not their stupidity, i think my generation was plenty stupid before we all grew up and im sure the same can be applied to any generation really.

hell some generations dont STOP being stupid

but thats another post entirely.

what scares me about kids today is the mentality.

all the ceremony is gone, all the spectacle.

what really brought this to mind was a blurb post i saw earlier in the day on aolradioblog.com

[in refrence to the topic: 10 Worst album covers of 2009 (so far)] RogerTea said "Who cares about album covers in this day and age? In this age of downloaded digital music album art is an outdated concept - as is the concept of the album itself."

now this disturbed me greatly.

and my reply was this "#19, you officially are the last straw that broke the camel's back, my hope for this new generation.

your comment is perfectly in line with the thought of shutting down libraries and killing print media. if you would have been alive in an age where there was spectacle in going to the record store, and sitting in your room alone listening to the whole LP while you carefully examined the art and lyrics that accompanied it you would think differently. its called appreciating art, try it some time."

Now contrary to popular belief, i dont always go flying off the handle and post replies like this.

it does however scare me, because as this is starting to become the thoughts of a new generation, what other ceremony will be cast aside?

hell, voting is already a dwindiling past time, as are things like dating.

yes, dating.

kids these days... its all about their hooking up, and then one day they will wake up at 30 have no idea what a real relationship is like.

now i should take this time to mention, im no old fogey, im only 24 and i still find some of this a bit shocking.

so in closing all i have to say is this:

heaven forbid we wake up one day, and all the Van Goghs have been replaced by photoshoped images and vectors, all the books replaced by blogs, all the LP's into 99 cent singles, and all the past great mediums of human expression in this world discarded because what is modern is "better" solely because its modern.

that and:

am i being rediculous?

Magic: The Gathering - Jace of Spades

2009-08-13T14:32:00.006-06:00

Excuse the corny name for the deck, i couldn't resist!

Planeswalker - 3

3x Jace Beleren

Spells - 29

4x Underworld Dreams
4x Sign in Blood
4x Howling Mine
2x Font of Mythos
2x Twincast
3x Cancel
2x Countersquall
2x Soul Manipulation
2x Doom Blade
4X Call to Heel

Creatures - 8

4x Tidehollow Strix
4x Parasitic Strix

Lands - 22

3x Drowned Catacomb
3x Taramorphic Expanse
8x Swamp
8x Island

Now now, i know what youre thinking.... playing with a planeswalker? for shame!

im pretty ashamed actually, ive been bitching about them since they first came out

but as i was pouring over the new type 2 cards when M10 was released i saw the chance to do something i haven't been able to do well in type 2 for some time: make an Underworld Dreams deck.

Sure Wheel and Deal is out, sure the lack of Psychic Possession makes the deck a tad weaker, yes theres no more Teferi's Puzzlebox awesomeness... but there is this guy...

Good ol' Jace Beleren.

that and a few other very cool cards like Sign in Blood make for a (new) one-two punch with the 'Dreams.

Now if youve ever played a Underworld Dreams deck its pretty simple, get 'Dreams out (fast) and then flood thier hand like theres no tomorrow.

the Strixes are for chump blocking and stalling, and the counters and bounce are for annoying the living crap out of your opponent.

what blue does best eh?

P.S. YES, i know its 62 cards :p

World of Warcraft TCG - Ueki Dreamstar

2009-08-13T10:10:00.007-06:00

This deck is for the World of Warcraft TCG, a favorite of mine and one i'll get more into in a future post

The deck is named after my main character in the MMO version, Ueki Dreamstar

Hero - Moonshadow (Druid/Resto)

Abilities - 24

2x Bash
2x Aquatic Form
2x Claw
2x Flight Form
4x Swiftshift
3x Utopia
4x Moonfire
2x Tangling Roots
3x Healing Touch

Equipment - 11

3x Twig of the World Tree
1x Stormrage Cover
2x Bloodsea Brigand's Vest
1x Predatory Gloves
1x Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots
3x Rune of Metamorphosis

Allies - 14

2x Leeroy Jenkins
2x Envoy Samantha Dillon
4x Savina Greysky
4x Galway Steamwhistle
2x The Abominable Greench

Quests - 10

1x Relics of the Wakening
1x Crown of the Earth
3x The Ring of Blood : The Blue Brothers
1x The Lexicon Demonica
4x Sunken Treasure

Locations - 3

3x The Darkmoon Faire

This ones pretty simple really, build resources then whack away with your big stick and Moonfire!

Utopia helps you supress your enemy, and build you some resources at the same time. if you feel like your gonna have to use it hold on to your Galway Steamwhistles, and save a Sunken Treasure or two to pull your Twigs back into your hand (after sacking them as a face down resource to a Twig)

the feral cards are a bit random i know, but i wanted to:

a) build a deck that plays like i play my character online

b) show off the versatility of druids, even in the card game.

this is honestly the deck im most fond of so far in the WoW TCG, no doubt considering its based off of me!

.hack//ENEMY - Trick or Treat!!

2009-08-13T08:45:00.006-06:00

Now really these next couple posts are for my benefit really

as you may or may not know i have TONS of cards. like literally, tons

i wouldnt doubt it if i have 2,000 lbs worth.

so what i wanted to do was get my decks down someplace so if i mess em up or put them away i can rebuild them.

this one is from the .hack//ENEMY card game by decipher that was tragically short lived.

Trick or Treat!!

PCs - 12

3x Subaru Lv.1
2x Terajima Ryoko Lv.1
4x Benkei Lv.1
3x Crest Lv.1

Items - 17

3x Hatchet Lv.1
3x Battle Axe Lv.1
4x Midnight Axe Lv.2
3x Darkness Axe Lv.3
4x Plate Armor Lv.1

Fields - 1

1x Θ Cursed, Despaired, Paradise

Monsters - 30

4x Halloween
3x Noisy Wisp
4x Ectoplasm
2x Red Scissors
2x Squilla Demon
1x Mantis
1x Crab Turtle
2x Scorpion Brigade
4x Scorpion Attack
3x Snip Snap Brigade
4x Monkey Crab

How its works is you spend a couple turns building up your bad ass Heavy Axes. after that you throw them to the wolves and store, store, store your Darkness monsters. throw in the playing of a couple of your non essential Water monsters as face down cards and the real fun begins. you sic your Halloween on your opponent giving him enough other creatures to be quite tied up and when his reward comes around, you discard either Red Scissors or Squilla Demon from your hand, this allows you to sneak in extra victory points for a quick, descisive win.

Now the deck isnt nessesarily complete.

it definatly needs more Crab Tutles, Red Scissors, Squilla Demon, and maybe another Mantis for good measure.

maybe one more Terajima Ryoko, but i wouldnt know what PC to substitute it for.

the weapons in addition to helping your Heavy Axes fend off your opponent also help you spot Darkness for Halloween. make sure to save a Plate Armor and Darkness/Midnight Ax for Terajima to help you spot that 6 Darkness a turn or two sooner.

NXE Newness!

2009-08-12T11:47:00.002-06:00

Well hello there....

what? you say you notice something different?

Yup that new fangled xbox live update hit adding new awesomeness to the world of xbox live.

new is the avatar marketplace, where you can buy anything from the most useless avatar items, to some of the coolest stuff ever.

and dont worry theyre still comming out with more free stuff, all this stuff to buy is liscenced (hense having to charge for it)

so far are pirate costumes from Sid Meyer's Escape from Monkey Island, apparel and clothes based on Halo 3, a UNSC marine costume and more apperal for Halo: ODST, Gears of War 2 outfits and clothes, and also lightsabers and jedi outfits from Star Wars: Clone Wars.

they also have actual branded apperal, stuff like adidas and tokidoki but it seems kinda tame when you can wear clone trooper armor

aside from that you can now update your netflix watch it now que from your xbox, watch videos and chat with other xbox 360 netflix users in an xbox live party, and see what netflix videos the people on your friends list are watching.

theyve also added some technical features like a "progressive scan"-like option that formats your video settings based on a scan of your tv automatically.

and probably one of the coolest additions is that of the full game download station.

no, were not talking about arcade games

no, were not even talking about xbox originals

were talking full Xbox 360 games you can download and play straight from your hard drive! sure, its gonna make us all lazy ass bastards but hey, its still a damn cool thing!

VS! bout one: FFXI Vs. WoW

2009-07-08T16:29:00.010-06:00

Now this is a good one, IMO at least. a battle between the 2 heavy hitters of the MMO world.

sure theres also Everquest, LotRO, City of ____, Tabula Rasa, and countless shitty free MMOs, but come on, those get about as much action as a transvestite hooker with elephantitus.

So let us examine the epic struggle between:

Round one: Depth

well, ok as far as depth i really mean how intricate are the mechanics of the gaming world in which you play, on one hand you have WoW. theres not much to say, probably the deepest feature in WoW is the ability to jump, swim, dive and even fly in certain areas. then you have FFXI... every zone has its own flora/fauna eco system, there is a working calendar, clock, and day/night changes, elemental correlation charts and constellations that actually affect gameplay.... *whew* top it all off with the ability to use all of these things to your advantage while doing nearly anything in the game and its pretty clear...

Winner: FFXI

Round two: Casual Gamer

This is a bit of a turn around from the last round. FFXI up until about a year ago would have lost this round in a heartbeat. the game is simply designed around parties of multiple players, that in most instances have to be well balanced to work. recently theyve added Besieged, Fields of Valor and Campaigns as a way to help people trying to play casually. FFXI still has a long way to go to match WoW though, since nearly anything not considered endgame is soloable. they even allow players who dont play as often earn extra exp to catch up to friends via the "rested" mechanic.

Winner: WoW

Round three: Customization

a close one, WoW lets you customize just about everything, with a wide variety of UI's (user interfaces), facial/hair customizations and, and even the ability to set your job apart by spending Talent Points, very few in a certain job class are alike, let alone characters themselves. not to be outclassed, FFXI has the merit point system, at its best its a great way to make youself more skilled in particular fields your job encompasses but at its worst can have "choices" that are more similar to: "Hmm do i pick between being shot in the foot, or stabbed in the hand?" certain jobs merit point customizations are next to useless, and some are even detrimental to the idea of the jobs they are supposed to define. thankfully the Sub Job system is without real flaw, and the pairing of a main job with different sub jobs can alter the role of a job significantly in many cases. that and the recent addition to FFXI, "Augmented" armor/items helps diversify the game a bit, but considering WoW has had that the whole time, its safe to say they cancel each other out.

Winner: WoW (narrowly)

Round four: Lore/Atmosphere

This one is closer than you might think. WoW seems the obvious choice due to the massive amounts of Lore and History from the Warcraft series thats snowballed from game to game, and dozens of recognizable property-spanning characters but dont count out FFXI just yet. For one travelling and map set up in WoW are incredible, since there is usually no loading or zoning while travelling anywhere on the same continent the world seems much more vast, you know how areas connect and you can see the landscape change even while simply flying over the areas via flight masters. this adds some real solidity to the world youre playing in, making it seem more real. and while there are alot of positives WoW also is its own worst enemy. Its rife with pop culture references. Avenger's Shield, The quest "The Kessel Run", and NPCs like Harrison Jones Sween Netodd, and an entire section of an instance a mock up of a famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, the game does alot to ruin its own sense of reality by breaking fourth wall more times than you can shake a stick at. FFXI on the opposite end has done quite alot to ensure as few referances to our world as possible. while references to pop culture do exist, theyre usually so obscure they have to be researched in order to fully understand. also to FFXI's credit, although they dont carry over any lore or history from previous Final Fantasy games (save from job classes, Cid (who is always a different character anyways) and various monsters/critters) they have done alot to expand the all new characters through questions and the various numerous missions you can complete in the game. both games still have to deal with noobs screaming quotes from naruto or 300 though, of course!

Winner: Tie!

Round five: Merchandising

Unfortunatly this is unfairly one-sided. WoW has a Card Game (which i love, i think it was given great planning and R&D), countless brand tie-ins (including the best soda EVER), action figures, comic books, liscenced apperal (including customized guild shirts and hats!), a minitures game, board games, RPG books, plushies, even the ability to get a custom laser cut statue of your in game character! Hell i even had a free track download for Guitar Hero 3 thats a World of Warcraft band (L70 Tuaren Shaman)! what does FFXI have? a handful of t-shirts, some plushies, some very expensive jewelry and statue of the games angriest Galka....

Winner: WoW

Round six: Play Range

How do i love thee? let me count the ways! this section is about all the different ways to love to play your game, and the different ways the game keeps you interested (and subscribed). WoW has a decent ammount. they have multiple PvP formats that are all fun, Instances, Raids, normal grinding, questing, and special seasonal events. FFXI on the other hand has normal grinding, Fields of Valor, Campaign, Campaign Ops, Besieged, Assualts, Salvage, Limbus, Dynamis, Einherjar, BCNMs, ENMs, CNMs, ZNMs, HNMs, Gods/Sky, Sea, Garrison, Moblin Maze Mongers, seasonal and holiday events, tons of missions (and i do mean tons), questing, and 2 PvP formats no one really gives a damn about! did someone say knock-out?

Winner: FFXI

*Fanfare*

And now.... the winner by knock-out... FFXI!

*More fanfare*

now this is the part where i say just weigh in your own judgement and the things that mean the most to you in an MMO experience. that and the part where i turn the mic over to a drunk Larry Merchant for post fight interviews!

Mountain Dew Game Fuel is back! Do me a favor and click on the banner >.>

2009-05-29T18:38:00.002-06:00

AAR 8

2009-05-06T22:41:00.002-06:00

performing Gives You Hell (its their on-tour back-up guitarist, i thought id give him some spotlight for being an unsung hero!)

thus concludes my posting in real time from the concert, give me a couple days and ill get a slide show up of the rest of the pics i have

AAR 7

2009-05-06T22:34:00.002-06:00

performing Move Along

AAR 6

2009-05-06T22:22:00.003-06:00

performing It Ends Tonight

Tyson actually said before they started playing this song that a friend of his (namely their sound tech at the concert) and a rough patch they got into once.

in his words "This song is about having a friend and literally wanting to smother him in his sleep!"

Nice!

AAR 5

2009-05-06T22:18:00.002-06:00

performing Mona Lisa (When the World Comes Down)

before starting the song he actually asked for girls to volunteer to dance with him during the song ("Please no 14 year olds, this statutory rape shit makes me uncomfortable")

the lucky girl is Celina, and from the looks of it may have just narrowly escaped Tyson's no 14-year olds clause!

AAR 4

2009-05-06T22:08:00.002-06:00

performing Swing, Swing

AAR 3

2009-05-06T22:05:00.003-06:00

performing Believe

AAR 2

2009-05-06T21:51:00.002-06:00

performing Dirty Little Secret

AAR 1

2009-05-06T21:45:00.002-06:00

starting the show off with I Wanna, the first song of their newest CD "When the World Comes Down"

AAR Insanity!

2009-05-06T21:16:00.002-06:00

Writting from the AAR/Shiny Toy Guns concert

holy shit is it packed

AAR is next but above (sorry for poor quality) is a surprise performance by none other than Rob Thomas! (no shit!)

thats Shiny Toy Guns playing 3 a.m. with him singing!

woot! what a bonus!

2009-04-30T10:54:00.001-06:00

one more time! lets try and see if this works eh?
- AbsoluteZERO

J-Pop Invasion Desu Ka!?

2009-04-08T18:09:00.000-06:00

Well its a gosh darn Japanese invasion we got on our hands!

and i couldnt be more happy!

first off we have the second foray into the american music arena by Utada Hikaru, or as her loyal fans know her, Hikki

her first american album (circa 2003) was met with... risistance... even from loyal fans

the album itself was very experimental and i definatly think that her albu. producers at the time didnt take it very seriously

even timbaland who was credited as a producer threw her a pretty whack beat

she coulda done better by herself, and well, she did

her second release is not only what her first shouldve been but it holds its own against even her best work from japan

the second is a first american release for the now officially fluent tri-lingual J and K-pop singer BoA (Kwon)

selt titled, BoA is another great album, and i will venture to say should find its way into american hearts and mp3s players very easily

ive listened to it about 5 times through today and i can say with no b

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OH YEAH!

2009-03-29T12:37:00.003-06:00

We all remember this guy! for something like 40 years (im just guessing) hes been a pretty big part of american culture

to hell with Tang, Sunny D can go suck an egg, and Hawaiian punch can stay on the island for all i care, i was raised with this stuff ever since i was a little kid

even today you can find some of this stuff in my fridge

and of course everyone knows the best part about it was the points.

unfortunatly the kool-aid points order forms started becoming harder to find, they used to be in the grocery stores but became scarce.

then about 5 years ago i stopped being able to find them all together.

so that left me and my family who had saved our kool-aid points for the better part of 20 years (not joking) and all of a sudden we had nothing to do with them.

it was a blow to the spirit

for 5 years i cursed them, encouraging me to be more of a pack rat and now, having nothing to gain for my meticulous snipping and saving of thousands of tiny squares.

well i may have spoke too soon and at the request of my mom i looked on the internet.

(why didnt that occur to me earlier >.>)

i found this:

http://brands.kraftfoods.com/koolaid/KoolSpace/KoolPoints/KoolPointsForm.pdf

i am so glad they are still doing this!

i guess this means i gotta take back all the bad things i said about them for no longer featuring the kool-aid point redemption thing

so i guess i can really only express my relief and hapiness in one way, a bellowing OH YEAH! and a cold tall glass of Kool-Aid! (black cherry ftw!)

Confffffuuuuuuuuuucccccccccckkkkkkkkk

2009-03-27T13:37:00.003-06:00

Ok well i havent been playing Magic:tG for awhile and i decided to wait for the lorwyn block to move out of tournys

but since theyre on the shards block i figure i might as well build up some cards while waiting
so as per the usual i bought myself a fat pack to sample the set

this has always been a good idea because for 25-30 bucks you can get some packs, some storage boxes, the new magic novel, a 20 sided die, some card organizers, and most importantly a little booklet that shows all the cards in the set

its an invaluable deck building resource in hardcopy

well so anwyays i bought a Conflux fat pack and cracked it open

immediatly i notice somethings amiss

where there should have been 2 boxes there was only 1

not to mention there were no card index tab things

and where there should have been a book there was a sample chapter

oh, but there were 2 more packs than normal

so ok correct me if im wrong here but if i wanted more packs doesnt it make sense to buy packs?

but im not buying packs

im buying a fat pack

if i wanted more cards for my money id've just bought packs in the first place!

so yeah needless to say i was a little dissapointed.

One Righteous Song

2009-03-17T16:54:00.002-06:00

i've long said that RHCP were awesome, and this song is by no means new to me, but listening to it again for the first time in awhile has made me remember just how awesome this song is, as is the whole album.

just thought i'd mention that >.>

Viewer Discretion Advised

2009-03-02T14:20:00.004-07:00

well we threw dude a early surprise birthday party on saturday

herein lies the true account of the events that occured

of course we spent all day sat running around like chickens with our heads cut off

juli and i, i mean

the cake itself (pic so very related) took alot longer than juli expected

she baked at my parents house, who thought it was a riot, and oddly enough everyone got involved

i mean everyone, the skin colored frosting was courtesy of one of josh's friends who happens to be an artist as i understand

everyone else helped prepare it in someway he loved the cake and after egging him on he even motorboated it lol

a good time was had by all and apart from me realizing i had left my 12 pack of Mountain Dew Voltage in the shopping cart at target it was a good night

then around midnight the blackout happened

pretty much any resident of el paso knows what im talking about

the whole eastside which is the cities second largest area was entirely blacked out
for us, it lasted about 3 hours

we had fun though, we hung out and chatted by candal light for 3 hours before finally deciding to pack it up and head home

at first the street lights and traffic lights were actually off but then they were starting to be switched on, one by one as we were driving home

pretty soon they were all on and power was restored to our apt by the time we got home.

all in all a good day

i still miss those Mountain Dews though >.>

More things i wont be getting...

2009-02-27T11:41:00.001-07:00

Well lookie here. isnt this just fancy?

its an extended art promo card based on the character Rehgar from the WildStorm World of Warcraft comics illustrated by Jim Lee, one of todays top 5 best comic book illustrators (still always second to the late, great Michael Turner though)

it and several other very cool promos from the upcomming WoW TCG expansion Blood of Gladiators will never see my hands

why? because El Paso isnt the best city for hobby gaming, thats why

it used to be that a big city meant more gamers but apparently mexicans arent big on card games

in fact most of my ita's business (at Sunrise Games and Comics) comes from soldiers at Fort Bliss
what hobby gamers i do see either play Magic or some kind of tabletop miniatures game like Warhammer or Heroclix

i hold out hope that one day we can actually have events for other games too, the WoW TCG is actually very cool in tournament format and Decipher's new tcg, Fight Klub is coming out soon so i really hope to see some organized play for that

heres to hoping eh?

well just to round off the day heres some more of those ultra pretty cards i wont be getting XD

Nectar of the Gods

2009-02-23T12:55:00.002-07:00

God i miss Game Fuel

im pretty sure its just me but that exquisite taste of cherry citrus and caffiene was enough to make me jizz in my pants

(speaking of which that song is hilarious)

alas though it was for a limited time only forcing me to pine for its flavor reminicient of flinstones vitamins and sherbet push pops for the rest of my life

i guess what really reminded me is the release of Halo Wars coming up here in about 10 days

im excited personally

afterall i love Halo and i love RTS games

what really got me was when the released the video demo a year or so ago

i mean who doesnt flip over being able to call in orbital laser strikes!?

no one i know... thats who

and of course the playable demo is now on xbl

i played through it and i have to say i was scared about how it would play out on a controller but it seems to work very well

i am going to miss the ability to voom out really far to see the whole map but other than that there seems to be no limitations with a controller

good for me

bad for competition heheh

so i anxiously await to play through that one

perhaps itll hold me until Halo Recon comes out lol

if i dont get the Battle of New Mombassa in one of these games though im gonna be PISSED!

View from the top... Sort of

2009-02-23T08:53:00.004-07:00

like this?

this is the view from the second floor of my new office

you dont wanna know what the second floor looks like

you dont want to know what the first floor looks like for that matter

but yes... i found a job, well rather my father found one for me

i guess it doesnt sound good to admit your family helps you find jobs

its better than not having a job though

this new gig is data entry

it ranges between alot of work you have to rush through to having no work at all on certain days

sounds like a really lazy kinda gig. i.e. my kinda gig

so thankfully im back on my feet again although my mom and buddies arent yet

im just gonna keep hoping for em really

The Great Purging

2009-02-20T16:54:00.002-07:00

Well i know ive slacked it posting...

but ive actually been really busy.

too busy to post?

not quite but hey... i did warn you.

well christmas, got alot of cool stuff, if i find the time ill review some of it for yall, but im gonna fast forward to two weeks ago.

(hurray for time paradoxes in my blog)

we call it... The Great Purging

as you may or may not know i got laid off from C&R on the 4th or so.

the owners of the company let me go to make room for people coming in from howdys, a subsidiary of a company the recently purchased.

but... it wasnt just me

they also let my mom (HR manager and 20 year employee), my bud Omega (Billing entry, 3+ years) and my bud Zeta (Safety assistant, like me, and about 2 years)

i was with them for 6 years

what a deal huh?

so i was left with housework and watching anime to occupy me while i searched for a job.

good news: i watched Macross Frontier

good news: i found a job

bad news: housework sucks

well at least thats over with eh?

Michael Turner

2009-01-14T10:31:00.004-07:00

Ok, i totally was not preparred for what to say last night.

i literally spent like an hour in front of the computer blinking in 3-second intervals.

i guess i was realy blindsided by this. even still i dont entirely have the words to express how i'm feeling.

shocked is one.

saddend.... theres another good one.

i mean he was an incredible artist with an excellent imagination. he gave us what is still one of my favorite comic book series, Fathom.

but more importantly he was the first illustrator i ever cared about as a person.

sure i know the big names of todays comics, john romita jr. is another favorite of mine.

but, you never really felt like you know any of em.

but Michael was different. i remember reading the the wizard special issue on Fathom/Top Cow. it had a very personal look into Michael's life.

we got to watch him talk to Marc Sylvestri, and Peter Stiergewald, we got to see him creating the comics we loved, we even got to see him doing what he loved most, diving.

we even knew when his mother sculpted statues and busts of his characters. we saw Michael Turner on a very personal level.

i did alot of surfing last night in his name and i found countless blogs and articles all relating to what a friendly and awesome guy he was.

one blogger had even said Michael had offered to show his editors samples of the blogger's work to help him get a leg up. they had never met before.

Michael was always willing to help others experience the same success he had and above all else always had a smile on his face. he loved meeting his fans and hearing what they had to say.

i will always miss the chance to have met him personally, and the dream i once had of working for him at Aspen Comics, but at least for the time he had he made himself a great life and enjoyed what he did, sharing that joy through his art on each and every page he illustrated.

Goodbye Michael Turner, my inspiraton.

Goodnight, Sweet Prince

2009-01-13T22:36:00.002-07:00

i honestly don't know why i didnt find out sooner.

a great man.

a great artist.

a great inspiration.

you will be missed

Let the Laughter Begin!

2008-12-09T14:55:00.001-07:00

GET!

Skull, Paragon of Dynamis Excellence!

2008-12-08T11:10:00.004-07:00

Skull just made the 5/5 club about 2 weeks after me! (ill post pics of us later)

enjoy it buddy!

Jump In!

2008-12-08T08:22:00.001-07:00

so what do you guys think of the new me?

ok so its not the NEW me but it is my avatar on xbox live.

for those of you who dont know Xbox Live was recently improved.

the Dashboard has a new look that features stuff like comunity spotlight and upcoming events as well as all the old normal stuff.

you can even link your gamertag to your netflix account and watch streaming movies

if you dont already have a netflix they give you a free trial but i dont know how long it is.

and of course most notable change are the avatars.

you can customize them and are pretty much the same thing as a Mii (of Nintendo Wii fame)

and when you want to play a game together with your buddies all your avatars join an xbl party. this way its basically easier to join their games in progress or isolate voice chat so only they can hear you.

i gotta say this update has been quite a blast!

but if all of this is too overwhelming for you.... just press the Xbox guide button and it bring up a small version of the old Dashboard menu blades.... just in case!

slashdance!

2008-12-07T00:02:00.001-07:00

well well well, what have we here?

another loot card!

its seriously ironic how i keep finding these things.

i ended up giving this one to my buddy Aeroduran since he still plays WoW.

i cant wait for him to show me what it does lol.

apparently it throws party favors that makes everyone in a radius dance for a minute

ill bet he uses it on Sarera too lol

enjoy it boss!

And SPD is his Game!

2008-11-19T15:37:00.008-07:00

Heheh ok im going to kiss a little ass here so be warned.

i picked up this little a ditty a few days ago and my first impressions were awesome enough as it is.

what is it you ask?

its an RPG

wtf?

a Sonic RPG?

yes! Arr Pee Gee!

well its developed by BioWare. so that in itself should tell you quite a bit about it.

if that DOESNT, BioWare are the folks that brought us such awesomely awesome games as Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1&2, Baldur's Gate, Never Winter Nights, and lots of others.

first off the list of playable characters is pretty awesome. you can have 10 playable characters to choose from, from Sonic and Tails at first to any of the following through the course of the game: Knuckles, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rogue the Bat, Dr. Eggman/Robotnik (yeah weird huh?), Cream the Rabbit, E-123 Omega, and the new character Shade the Echidna. the game even features cameos by Vector the Crocodile and G.U.N.

and of course the game takes full advantage of the DS's touch screen technology by using the stylus to navigate through game menus, combat menus, activate special attacks called POW moves and move on the map.

the game even goes so far to incorporate each of Team Sonic's special abilities. i refer to these as move abilities because accessing certain parts of the map require certain move abilities. Sonic's speed allows him to use ramps and loop-the-loops and move quickly through pipes and such. Tails, Cream, Rogue and even Knuckles to an extent can fly (or in Knuckles' case, glide). of course Tails will get the ability to travel very far while Knuckles (i think) is stuck with only Fly level 1. other move abilities are Warp, Invulnerable, Climb, and Smash. all will be needed at one point or another to access 100% of the map and almost always for quests.

its got a great story in my opinion, dealing with (without giving anything really away) a new menace threatening to steal the Master Emerald. even Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and Shadow are forced to play for Team Sonic to get rid of this new evil!

and of course as an RPG it does revolve around battle sequences and gaining EXP. when you do level you are allowed to put an extra point into their stats to further customize the character, and you are able to spend 5 points to puchase POW abilities. some of these abilities even involve other characters (so plan whos in your party well!) to do massive damage and even inflict special status effects!

and of course Sonic would be powerless without his Rings! only this time rings are used as currency, buy equipment, items, or save yourself from a gameover by paying with rings. some rings will even ressurect your characters mid battle (like a standard resurection item), other items include things to temporarily boost stats, HP items, POW points items, and items to sure status effects. and not be left out Chao are in this game as well, only this time they can be assigned to specific characters to enhance that characters abilties, stats, you name it. there are 40 different Chao in the game each with a different effect and will hatch and grow automatically once youve found the Chao eggs in each landscape.

all of that makes this game awesome, but there are a couple snags that keep it from being totally awesome.

first off is the signiture BioWare dialog. although its great in other games by these guys, the dialog choices usually serve to determine your characters alignment or personality... they dont in this game. dialog choices are just for fun or for advancing conversation more quickly, or finding out more information at times.

the only other gripe i have is that the game is a bit too easy. i didnt have a hard time until i did a quest several levels early, and even then i was able to do it in a try or two. as long as you are remotely close to the level you are supposed to be while doing missions or quests you'll never really be in danger. i am of course only about 75% of the way into the game so im hoping it gets "pleasently challenging" sometime soon.

all in all im pretty pleased with the game and its kept me pretty involved since i got it. its defintaly worth a play if you like any 2 of the following: RPGs, Sonic the Hedgehog, DS games, breathing, women.

My GF is an AWESOME GF! pt.2

2008-11-13T13:51:00.009-07:00

Well.... yet again. i have to speak of how totally wicked awesome my GF is.

y'see... we celebrated our 18 month anniversary just wednesday.

i bought her a very nice Citizen Eco-drive stainless steal and Swarsky Crystal watch. i ended up paying way less than i expected to

thanks to her, and a little luck :)

and for me.... she pulled me aside and asked me what i would rather have...

a PS3 or a Xbox 360 Elite.

Wow

no really, WOW.

she told me if i didnt mind combining this gift with my b-day/christmas gift i could have one of these magical consoles.

now i already have a 20gig Xbox system from way back.

like initial launch way back

needless to say its in poor health.

all those launch Xboxes had some sorta issue, and mine still works but barely.

it actually freezes up.

no real red ring though

so i could replace that, with its already full hard drive and dimishing health, with a crisp new (and black) 120 gig HDMI cable havin' Xbox 360 Elite or an 80 gig PS3.

what did i choose??

Oh yeah, you know it baby.

ok well i do have to say i own one PS3 game. do you know how many PS3 games im interested in owning?

one.

Metal Gear Solid 4.

thats pretty much it.

so to fix both my dying Xbox problem and my HDD space problem i went with the Elite.

lol i know Sony fanboys everywhere are cursing my name.

all in all though.... thanks my wonderful lover. you are indeed the best.

even better than Solid Snake!

(and thats saying alot!)

Admiral On Deck! /salute

2008-11-11T07:53:00.002-07:00

Got me hat from a Xarc run last sunday!

Thanks PA!

in any case i now can earn meself the right to be called Commodore,

but since im a ham when it somes ta titles, i think ill go by Admiral

fitting since i have an entire nother LS should i need the manpower!

not to mention alot of friends ive made in Pocket Aces too.

so all in all i have my veritable fleet.

heheh...

hehehehh...

hehehehehehh.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

CNN projects Obama

2008-11-04T21:11:00.005-07:00

No... its not *actually* official yet and you can make all the case you want but... things cant change too much.

and... im now listening to McCain's consession speech.

its a good one, i definatly have to applaud him for his grace and open-mindedness even in loss.

but overall... America has now done something incredible.

ive seen global news coverage... and people are going nuts, this is a global event, really and truly.

now all hope turns to Obama, please let us all hope he can deliver what he says for the good of our nation.

Heres to the new president of the United Stated of America!

Fable-ulous!

2008-11-04T10:57:00.009-07:00

Heheh. yes. i got it...

well as im sure you can assume... and assuming is for asses btw...

but yes you can guess im going to review the damn game now.

you were right!

does that happen often?

probably not... anyways

Fable II, sequel to the highly successful albiet lacking Fable for Xbox.

the shiney limited edition will look like this:

and contain this a download card for the "Otherworldly Download pack" which features the "HAL" armor set and "Hal's Sword".

being the completely awesome epicness this game is this is what the Hal armor is:

hell yes.

Master Fucking Chief armor

what more do you want? sheesh.

oh yeah the other bonuses?

you also get access to the Halls of the Dead dungeon, (off the main pier in Bloodstone, look for a dive spot) and within that a legendary sword called "The Wreckager"

well anyways thats what ya get....

there was supposed to also be a mini hobbe figurine and a set of 4 or 5 Fable II tarot cards.

where those went i'll never know....

anyways... if youve played the first game i'll save ya some time.

Go Get This Game.

well that is if you like what the first had to offer but wanted more.

we ALL wanted more.

did you like owning a massive property empire in Fable?

now you can own even more... and all your money is deposited directly to your characters every collection period! no more running!

did you like having one wife per city so no matter where you are you could always get some blacked out sex screen with some girl calling you norty?

you can save sex out of wedlock now! or if you do choose to get married you can even have children in Fable II, and not only that but watch that roving eye, cause if your wife(s) find out about mistresses/other families they'll give ya the ol heave ho!

speakin of sex outa wedlock, there are hookers in this game, but watch it cause sleepin with them skanks might result in getting an STD! and if that wasn't enough, you can even have sex with multiple men, women, or any combonation thereof! (theres even an achievement for it LOL)

did you like the morality system?

Fable II expands on it by having 2 distinct character aligntment bars Good/Evil and Morale/Corrupt. fall into any place on the two for a more descriptive character personality.

Emotes have been improved in Fable II also giving you more choices, and giving every NPC in the game 3 different ways to judge you: Love/Hate, Fear/Light Heartedness and Ugly/Beautiful

The fields and world are much much larger than the first Fable, about 10x more so as Lionhead states.

even battle affects you characters appearnce this time around. being defeated results in the appearence of permanent scars on your body... and villagers will even comment on them!

Get tattoos, haircuts, facial hair, make up, and a variety of clothing to upgrade your appearance! not only that but there are a variety of Dyes to change the color of anything you dont like, clothes included!

and quite possibly the biggest change to the game... mans best friend! (no not porn)

yep you have your own little doggie (i names mine Indiana)

he can bark to alert you if enemies are near, sniff out treasure chests you can't see, sniff out treasure buried in the ground, attack downed enemies to finish them off, distract enemies that may be trying to shoot you from a distance and even preform tricks to show off for the vilagers of albion.

all in all this was a great game, with many things to do after you be the main story line and a great experience overall.

oh.

did i mention you can do CO-OP now?!

lol yup, over Xbox Live even.

you can even unlock achievements by watching your friend accomplishments if youre playing with him on his game.

what would i give this game?

i'll give it an AWESOME/10

Hes a Dancing Queen?!

2008-10-31T13:10:00.006-06:00

Forgive me for all that Dancer gibberish, i had to copypasta the DNC AF quests into my blog...

i did it cause FFXIclopedia is blocked on my work computer

damn thourough IT guys!

anyways so i got my DNC AF.

it only took me 150k and 48 hours, all solo.

with minimal playtime to boot

what about the AF3 quest you ask?

haha look it up. its called "Comeback Queen"

well since then i finished gettin em, and i do have to say, that was the easiest full AF set i think ive ever gotten.

hell, even COR AF3 quest took a month to get people brave enough to head out to the ashu taliff.

so yeah, the AF story isnt bad, here are a few screenies. enjoy!

Year of the Reinvention -or- Change Ain't Just for Obama

2008-10-22T12:33:00.012-06:00

Well well now... ive been a busy....

person.

i got myself a load of new songs, most of them just singles off upcomming albums.

theres definatly a trend going here.

and if you dont know what it is by now *eyes title* im not tellin ya...

seriously...

anyways! lets move on to it. i got alot to get through so im gonna be fairly consice.

first one is a new single called "Gives you Hell" by The All-American Rejects off their upcomming CD

Im actually a pretty big fan of these guys after i saw one of their live preformances (even if you are so-so about their songs these guys are a blast in concert. they play better in concert than they do on their CDs!)

they've always been the pinacle of summertime feel good rythems and good sometimes even laugh to yourself funny lyrics.

this single gives you more of that with a rather refined sound organization. hats off to the mixer and producer cause they really took what AAR does best and improved on it.

it takes failed past relationship, peppers in some cynical fork-tongued goodness, and has you bouncing to the beat all the while.

if this is any indication their really going to take their newer more organized sound and work magic with it... i can't for the album if im in store for more of this!

Im also a big fan of BoA a korean born J-pop star (shush all of you)

unfortunatly i really only have access to her EPs.

this is actually a single off one of her albums thats recently come out though, called "Eat You up"

the single is that is.

Its no secret that BoA actually can speak pretty good english and it isnt the first time shes done it, but this song too is actually all in english.

but that combined with an american house style beat makes this song stand out from her previous stuff.

its not as good as some of the other songs of hers i own, but is still pretty good.

and it sounds incredible with my subwoofer ^^

her english is great though, and short of Utada Hikaru or Maaya Sakamoto, BoA's english vocals are very easy to understand and have almost no accent to them.

its yet another very dancy and singable song BoA.. what more can you ask for?

Ok... now its time for a couple by those F.O.B.

man what to say.

i mean its on par with some of the songs off their last album, but it is still so different in comparison.

some of my same gripes from my review of "I Don't Care" remain, although some lines are certainly quotable.

at certain times the band strikes a wonderful vocal range, hitting some lows and together with the beat bringing a very Depeche Mode feel to the song.

hell the beat itself sounds like something out of a 80's synth rock/pop manual.

and no Fall Out Boy song would be complete with mondgreen of somekind lol.

one line is either "Does your husband know the way that the sunshine bleeds from your wedding band" or Does your husband know the way that the sunshine gleams from your wedding band"

imho bleeds makes more sense but w/e

all in all i have to applaud what F.O.B. accomplishes... but i still miss what they brought to the table in years past.

theyre experimenting and theyre evolving, and most of all theyre growing.

and god damn the song is catchy

Another Fall Out Boy release off of Folie a Duex... "What a Catch, Donnie"

this one is even more different than the rest.

its a soulful balled like XO or Golden before it but its a little more difficult to get into.

i didnt particularly like Golden when i first heard it but it managed to grow on me somewhat

im not sure how much this one will grow on me.

not so say its not without merit.

most notably the song replays lines from famous F.O.B. singles at the end of the song, like "Grand Theft Autumn/Where is your boy", "Sugar We're Goin' Down", "Dance, Dance", "This Ain't a Scene its an Arms Race", "Thks fr th Mmrs", and even from "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet"

it even features some great lines, but all in all its the kind of song you end an album with

and according to Wikipedia's Folie a Duex page... its mid album.

can't say what they might be thinking but i guess we'll have to see how it plays out on the album.

heres to hoping.

KanYeWest.

Kanye, Kanye, Kanye...

first off... its a great sounding song.

trademark Kanye beat.

great subject matter

catchy

singable.

wait... singable?

yep... there is no rapping in this song.

isn't that odd... for a rapper to do?

i know hes borederline hip-hop/R&B... but he was still a rapper

nonetheless i cant really find a reason to not like the song.

even the T-pain spin on his voice which i would normally complain about it is perfectly fine in the song

yes.... im weirded out at this strange turn of events in the Kanye saga... but its good.

i mean i think it may bring listeners to the table that aren't a big fan of his rap.

not to say he stands to lose fans of his college dropout record if he doesnt have some rapping on the LP.

we'll just have to see. its a great song though

Now this one is a gem... a total gem.

in basic premise its the entire Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack covered by other artists... even the instrumental songs.

it really is a blast to listen to famous and or other artists take on the great works of Danny Elfman

and since this is a CD of various artists i'll give a quick rundown of each song so you'll know what youre getting into if you buy it

which you should

go buy it >.>

Overture - Devotchka - Good! mix Danny Elfman and eatern european stlye poka music (its good, dont be afriad!)
Opening - Danny Elfman - Good! hes no Price or Stewart but this is his baby and its good to hear him on the narration for once
This is Halloween - Marilyn Manson - Great, same as the one on the 2 disc NBC soundtrack a year or so ago
Jack's Lament - The All-American Rejects - Passable. i say this because they apply their own style wel enough, but they lose feeling in the sadder parts of the song. injecting your style is great, but dont lose the point of the song
Doctor Finkelstien/In the Forest - Amiina - Good. its instrumental and sounds great, similar to th original but with a twist
Whats This? - Flyleaf - fail. they miss the point of the song, once again injecting your style is great but dont lose the point of the song. its supposed to be about an inquizitive and exciting new thing jack discovers, and her vocals sound lazy and disintrested.
Town Meeting song - The Polyphonic Spree - Fail. this song is simply painful to listen to
Jack and Sally Montage - Viatamin String Quartet - Good! very faithful but a great way to listen to the song with just a dash of difference to make it interesting
Jack's Obsession - Sparklehorse - Fail. also painful. its not only painful to listen to but breaks up the vocals making them awkward. ignores the feel of the original song too
Kidnap the Sandy Claws - KoRn - Great! im not a fan of KoRn, in fact i actively dislike them. but i have to say they successfully add their own style without changing the song. good job
Making Christmas - Rise Against - Great, same as above, they are decen about controlling their angst partailly without sounding foriegn to their natural style. they capture the intensity of jack in parts of the song, good job
Nabbed - Yoshida Brothers - Great! almost completely different from the original but the Mandolin sounds incredible, more proof that different can still equal great
Oogie Boogie's Song - Rodrigo y Gabriella - Great! with no words even! spanish guitars play all but 2 lines in the whole song, which are the only vocals. daring, bold, and different
Sally's Song - Amy Lee - Great! worth buying the album for. Fiona Apple's version was good but her vocal style can sometimes be too morose. Amy captures the intensity of Sally's doubts without making her sound suicidal. and shes got some pipes on her too
Christmas Eve Montage - RJD2 - Great, a treat to listen to, a DJ doing a remix of the song making it seem very edgy, yet faithful. i can listen to it all day
Poor Jack - Plain White T's - Good. The vocals can be a bit tiring at times and i have to deduct points for trying to simply copy the original, but they do play it well and definatly capture the emotion
To the Rescue - Datarock - Great! so fun to listen too, especially with the music that plays during the fight with oogie boogie! can also listen to it all day!
Finale/Reprise - Shiny Toy Guns - Great! take what i said about RJD2 and add good vocals. faithful while different, also very fun to listen to!
Closing - Danny Elfman - Good. Same as i said about the opening
End Title - The Album Leaf - One of the most faithful songs on the album but a very good way to close it off. anything as different as some of the others would leave me feeling less nostagic i think.

and there ya have it!

with more winners than losers i think anyone that can get into the 5 covers on the special edition soundtrack from a year or so ago will love it.

just in time for halloween too!

Absolutezero, The Ace of Skulls

2008-10-21T17:00:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the solution, Skull...

The final solution...

The last absolution!

Glory Glory Hallelujah

2008-10-17T10:17:00.005-06:00

Well at least theres one thing this week i have to look forward to in a sea of Fail.

Keep it clean?

Bungie secrets?

a new Halo game... what?

and then through the clouds of secrecy and mysteriousity (yes i made this word up) we get this:

Yes!!!

Hello first wave invasion of earth!

Hello battle of new mambassa!

yeah. you remember that dont you?

that battle all the promotional material talked about?

why wasn't that in Halo 3? yeah i felt cheated too

but no longer!

you play as a ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) during the first invasion of the earth by the covenant forces.

nope, the game does not feature the Chief as the main character... hes off blowing up the Ark remember?

but it does have an all new campaign, new multiplayer maps and formats too from what ive read.

its still an FPS, something that was under debate for awhile but thats confirmed by bungie at this point.

also still features some of the things i LOVE about Halo 3, the Forge and Theatre/Save Games feature.

which are all awesomeness.

its set for release fall 2009 as a seperate game disc not neededing Halo 3, or as (once again i hear) a download of XBL marketplace.

come on bungie... no more pushing your games back please >.>

if you do i kill you.

Balloon Fiesta day 2 pt 1

2008-10-11T15:01:00.003-06:00

well... the title is actually misleading...

the balloon fiesta was cancelled late friday night and all of saturday was cancelled.

instead of doing that on sat we went to eat brunch with my girlfriends family

we went to a place called golden pride.

apparently all they do is breakfast burritos, fried chicken and ribs lol.

the chicken was good though.

so after brunch there we decided to check out and head home early.

so here we are, about 2 hours into the 4 hour journey back home!

hope yall missed me!

cause momma.. momma im comin home!

Balloon Fiesta day 1 pt 3

2008-10-11T09:42:00.003-06:00

incredible event.... not untouched by tragedy though

unfortunatly during the launch of the special shapes one of the balloons, shaped like a triangle hit a power line and the 2 pilots caught fire as their gondola caught fire and fell from the balloon.

sucks to think of something like that happening

a florida news crew apparently got video of it but it wasnt shown in its entirety for fairly obvious reasons.

after balloon fiesta we went back to the hotel

after all that it was naptime.

jesus was it nap time.

after that a trip to the mall where i browsed as my brother spent his whole check

i saw a master chief hoodie ive totally got my eye on now, and a cd of famous artists re recording the entire soundtrack from the nightmare before christmas.

and that is so win!

thankfully thats all for day 1.

stay tuned for day 2 happenings!

Balloon Fiesta day 1 pt 2

2008-10-10T19:20:00.003-06:00

yes.

thats Darth Vader.

fucking win.

that was only one of the totally awesome special shapes balloons they had at the field.

they had nearly 100 that all started to inflate and take off at daybreak.

they had cows, pirates, bees, cathedrals, haunted houses, and dragons just to name a few

dont worry ill hook you up with a slide show once i get back into town!

but yeah it was pretty incredible.

Juli and i ran around getting as many pictures as we could before settling down on a bench with my parents and brother.

and just when we thought it was over... several hundred balloons all came over from a field further down for a contest

the picture from the first post is of not even a tenth of the balloons we saw.

they all dipped and dove to try to snatch an item from one of 4 poles

one of which was a grand prize of a new car

the other 3 were generators and such (for balloons im sure)

they could also try and drop things into buckets as they passed

tough stuff!

Balloon Fiesta day 1 pt 1

2008-10-10T18:40:00.003-06:00

now now, im updating from my phone again so this will look weird until i can fix it monday

that having been said this is the scoop, skinny, lowdown, story... you get the idea!

thursday night... had to miss Einherjar... but we left at about 4 o clock.

traffic sucked.

but doesnt traffic always suck?

my dad drove the first half of the 4 hr journey until my brother, recently having aquirred his liscence, begged him to take over.

it was as eventful as you would think a 4 hour drive through nowhere would be.

pretty uneventful

well at least thats over with.

and aside from getting up at 4:30 in the morning

(oh my god)

the day has been quite awesome

we got up and made our way to the local mall, hopped on a bus that took us to the field, slobbingly dragged our asses around the kiosks for breakfast and finally settled as the balloons began to launch.

it was the "special shapes rodeo"

which if you alow me a minute... i will show you what that means!

Maritime (-or- Merit Time!)

2008-10-08T09:34:00.004-06:00

Maritime - Adjective - IPA: /'mærɪtaɪm/
1. Related to the sea or sailing
2. Of or relating to a mariner or sailor

Now your wondering.... why the definition?

well im sure you all could use a little learnin'.... but mostly its to get my pun of a title.

you see im a Corsair in FFXI.... what... you knew that already?

so yeah... Maritime... "of or relating to a mariner or sailor"... check.

Maritime sounds like Merit Time... check.

ive been meriting the last couple weeks... oh, now we get the pun! (hey i didnt say it was a good one ok?)

basically its been like this: i know exactly what im going to merit for my COR, and for most of my other jobs to boot.

afterall the goal is to be badass... like this:

Oh yeah... thats so gonna be me! anyways heres the plan:

Attributes:

max combo:5

max per item:5

meriting:

STR (5/5) 3>6>9>9>9

total: 36 merits needed

Combat Skills:

max combo: 20

max per item: 8

meriting:

Marksmanship Skill (8/8) 1>2>3>3>3>3>3>3

Dagger Skill (6/8) 1>2>3>3>3>3

Sword Skill (6/8) 1>2>3>3>3>3

total: 51 merits needed

Others:

max combo: 8

max per item: 4

meriting:

Critical Hit Rate (4/4) 1>2>3>4

total: 10 merits needed

Corsair Group 1:

max combo: 10

max per item: 5

meriting:

Quick Draw Recast (5/5) 1>2>3>4>5

Quick Draw Accuracy (5/5) 1>2>3>4>5

total: 30 merits needed

Corsair Group 2:

max combo: 10

max per item: 5

meriting:

Snake Eye (3/5) 3>4>5

Fold (3/5) 3>4>5

Winning Streak (3/5) 3>4>5

Loaded Deck (1/5) 3

total: 39 merits needed

....thats 166 merits needed total.... which is 1,660,000 limit points to gain.

wait... i already have 1 in Marksmanship, Crit rate, Quick Draw recast, Fold, Snake Eye, and Loaded deck... so 12 total merits earned

well thats 120,000 limit points

yay! only 1,540,000 to go!!!

/wrists

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! -or- Sleepless in San d'Oria

2008-10-07T16:58:00.004-06:00

Ok both titles are lame... i know.

but this is indeed overdue... ive been too busy with work and trolling the Pocket Aces forums in my spare time to post... forgive me!

in any case this past sunday was Dynamis - San d'Oria.

not usually my favorite pre-update because its the only zone no THF relic dropped in.

but of course post update... COR relic!!

and last sunday.... COR relic!!

yep yep... awesome i know.

in fact they are so awesome because they also have:

so in case you lost count... (how could you!) thats 3/5.

and with any luck.... i have 2 chances to get the Tricorne this month. got xarc runs on 10/19 and 10/26.

if i get it then ill only need the Commodore Bottes (Dynamis - Bastok) before im totally pimpin' a 5/5 relic armor COR.

and you can't help but Gyar at that idea... least i cant haha. (gyar)

and in case youre wondering exactly why my title is so lame... we ended up getting 16 relic drops in that San d'Oria run.

yeah no joke!

List of winners:
1.Absolutezero - COR
2.Deliata - RNG
3.Lostris - WHM
4.Omegaguardian - MNK
5.Arkain - PLD
6.Flameon - MNK
7.Snicky - DRG
8.Darksaphyr - NIN
9.Flameon - RDM
10.Flameon - PLD
11.Skulloneix - RDM
12.Mysticrain - PLD
13.Mageofphantasy - SMN
14.Ailden - MNK
15.Flameon - WAR
16.Seyomeyo - COR

So yeah, great run. 2 big money drops and 247 small currency too.

i am totally loving this last update shit

My GF is an AWESOME GF!

2008-10-01T09:30:00.002-06:00

lol excuse the title's... lack of wittyness

im pretty ecstatic atm.

well ya see.... my GF got me Force Unleashed.

if you dont know what that is... well wow... i really cant help you.

go get help.

professional help.

anyways so yes. im over here totally happy

don't believe me?

Yep.

thats it there

its love... shrink wrapped in a green clamshell :)

honey i love you!!

Were not in Kansas anymore Toto.

2008-09-27T19:01:00.002-06:00

well were off to Toto's Burger Barn.

never been there but i hear good thing

im also updating from my phone.

yes i rock that much

anyways im mostly just testing this out.

shout out to skull-ito.

ill be on tomorrow bud ive been busy w/ stuff XD

well i have... nothing elso to say so... see ya!

edit: Apparently its TORO's burger BAR...

i sure fucked up that name lmao.

this also fucks up my Wizard of Oz referance... damn.

burgers were FUCKING DELISH though!

total orgasm im mouth. i high recomend the American Kobe, was 100% american grass fed wagyu beef.

im totally serious. best meat ive ever had, and ive had some awesome ribs and succelent brisket and flavorful NY strip..... but this takes the cake!

And This!

2008-09-26T13:53:00.003-06:00

I just found this actually. well, i was reminded of it by my GF.

this is a video recorded by a friend that shows me and my LS doing a promyvion boss fight.

nice little trip down memory lane.

The video features me on my most underused job these days... SMN

my GF Lostris on PLD

Zoushuuwai on something. good friend of mine and member of my LS

Flarestrike on WHM i believe, hilarious guy, friend, and LS mate

Moritsune on something, another good friend and LS mate

and Invader, not actually from my LS but a friend none the less

I have another one thats Lostris, Zou, Me and a guy named Miakis doing the 3 Antican BCNM ZM mission....

that ones actually exciting and cool. lol

i gotta find that one >.>

Jack Thompson is so disbarred!! Finally!

2008-09-26T10:50:00.002-06:00

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he couldn't even get a free trial from AOL.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred that he can't use free weights.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even call a Jehovah's Witness.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he has to stay a hundred yards from jude Law.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even cross examine himself.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even approach the park bench.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even get a case at Costco.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, even his kids can't have recess.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, even the Republican party thinks he's a failure.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, ambulances are chasing HIM!

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, now he CAN handle the truth.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he got kicked out of a food court.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he had to switch to boxer shorts.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even habeus his own corpus.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even file briefs in his underwear drawer.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't appeal potatoes.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he has to pour all his own drinks.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he'll have to hire a lawyer to sue me for libel.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, all his doubts must now be unreasonable.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he'll never do another chin up.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred that his friends won't even break him off a piece of their Kit Kat.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even hear testimony in a Southern Baptist Megachurch.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he has to just swing on monkeys.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he's only permitted to use pie charts.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even practice the law of gravity.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even write on legal pads.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can only watch the first half of SVU.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, his porn magazines are just called "Barely."

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even use legal tender.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, there's an injunction against "Jack Thompson walks into a bar" jokes.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even file his nails.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he cant lower the bar any further.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even play basketball because it's on a court!

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney and Harvey Birdman have more cases.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even star in mean lawyer jokes anymore.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can only buy soap in liquid form.

Jack Thompson is so disbarred that when he plays tennis they hold him in contempt of court.

Madness is like gravity...

2008-09-25T11:29:00.008-06:00

Well now...

i didn't get my hat last night.... but someone else did:

Insanity! Grats Skull.

Speaking of insanity...

you know i was thinking about what the Joker said in The Dark Knight....

"Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push."

which brings me to the gravity of this situation.

Y'see , just after that RDM relic dropped.... a PLD relic dropped also.

cause esentially, nobody panics when things go according to plan.

even if the plan is horrifying.

if i tell everyone we will all wipe in dyna, or that you'll DC and your relic will go freelot, nobody panics.

because its all part of the plan.

but when one guy wins Valor Surcoat over some of the other PLDs in the LS... well then everyone loses thier minds!

Introduce a little anarchy.

Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.

Just like Saiyajinn's Surcoat lot.

completely fair.

yet some people still feel they have the right to bitch about how it shouldve gone to them

total chaos.

I'm an agent of chaos.

Oh, and you know the thing about chaos?

It's fair.

so people stop showing me the worst of humanity because you were beat fair and square.

so what if he doesnt bring PLD to dyna?

hes 75 /equip

and of ALL other things he couldve lotted in Xarc, he chose that. he wanted it over everything else.

thats gotta say something.

he had every right, and people thought otherwise

I guess it showed us. when the chips are down people will show ya who they really are.

Mordion Goal will be doubling up the rate PA's PLDs are going mad...

Frozen North

2008-09-24T16:56:00.004-06:00

Well im off to a Dynamis-Xarcabard run today.... hoping for my pretty hat...

hopin' some of that Luck o' the Corsair helps me! haha!

so wish me luck, and just cause i can, this:

The Day That Almost Never Comes

2008-09-24T10:33:00.003-06:00

Well ok, i have to say, its hard to talk while eating your own words.

not only that but its sorta hard to eat your own words when you've stuck your foot in it.

yes thats right:

Death Magnetic done made a fool of me.

i'm prolly not the only one either.

it all started a couple weeks ago.

"you heard the new metallica yet buddy?" a coworker asked me. "its good!"

"well thats the problem man, "new" and "metallica" dont go together very well" i replied.

and that was it. for a couple weeks.

CD came out, i didn't hear anything bad about it. and i even heard some good things.

I saw this cool Skullcandy Metallica styled Hesh headphones, cheap as hell with an itunes card for the Death Magnetic download too.

i almost considered it, mostly because the headphones were $20 cheaper than i paid for my Hesh.

and i do love those headphones.

still didnt buy em.

Then this morning.....

was driving to work and what should come on the radio (99.5 the Rocket baby!) but "The Day that Never Comes"

now i didnt know thats the song that was playing.

but in my ignorance i listened.... and liked.

now im listening to a ripped copy and i have to say... i still like.

it starts of with just post classic metallica guitar riffs in "That Was Just Your Life" and the album actually holds its steam very well.

of course im sure Rick Ruben had something to do with that but hey, who can argue when Metallica fans no longer have to say "old Metallica" on their list of favorite music.

James actually lets the guitars take precedence in some very classic Metallica styled solos.

good i needed him to shut up every once and awhile

It even features "The Unforgiven III" (still not as good as its predecesors but at least a welcome addition to the story)

Make no mistake this is no "Kill 'em All" which is probably the highest energy classic Metallica CD i have in my collection, but its definatly something to shut people like me up.

and something to make people no longer ashamed to say they like Metallica.

i know i was for awhile >.>

mind you i haven't totally forgiven for them for their collective idocracy (Lars mostly) but at least i can listen to this CD and tell myself "at least the music is good!"

Avast! pt 2

2008-09-18T16:50:00.009-06:00

Its been a big week.... lol

first off...

yup, ding 75 COR. finally got it.

im pretty damn happy.

it took what? 5 years to get a job to 75?

dont look at me >.>

well if that wasnt enough i have some other fabulous news!

*drumroll*

hell yeah booooyeeee. my first relic gears.

all post update huh? yeah this thing is nice.

its no Skadi gloves. but damn are they handy.

and the next run what should drop?

yeeeeaaaaahhhhh bboooooyeeeee. thats right

Commodore Frac.

yep. im starting to show just how leet i am

in 2/5 on newly added COR relic i am proud to say, only a week from each other and i have a shot at tricorne this wednesday to boot.

after awhile ill be all hardcore like this:

only instead of reg AF itll be this:

heheh. yup.

thats how hard i rock

other things of note:

ive merited Snake Eye

ive merited Fold

I did my Detonator WSNM

and im now after a Joyeuse to go with my pretty new shirt.

all in all its been a badass 2 weeks.

so.... i just have to say it.... Gyar!!!

The Update: A Visual Tour

2008-09-18T16:37:00.002-06:00

Avast!

2008-09-10T17:03:00.005-06:00

well my COR is like 5.7k til 75.

so close it hurts

like blue balls but digital. XD

I feel like Barbossa is laughing at me.

@#%! -or- I DO* Care

2008-09-10T13:58:00.003-06:00

ok seriously.

i give you all free range to laugh at me

no seriously

i downloaded the new single from Fall Out Boy and i can't get it out of my head.

its not even that great!

where are the witty one-liners?

the would-be-pop-punk guitar riffs?

the portion of the song that is slightly incoherrant thus sparking infinite debates amongst tween girls as to the ACTUAL lyrics.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. its damn catchy though.

damn.

...and then there was VERSION UPDATE!

2008-09-09T14:36:00.008-06:00

Ok, i know this isnt news for any of you FFXI players.. but wow, i still feel the need to reitterate.

you know... just in case.

seriously, its that big.

First off theres this nifty thing:

LEVEL SYNC!

i like it, i love it, i want some more of it. (god i just quoted a country song didnt it? please shoot me)

anyways so yes, ive actually experimented with this. and for those of you that don't know it lets anyone of a higher level join your party and cap themselves to gain the same EXP.

now i know what youre sayin... "but what about all my gear whaaaa~"

never fear!!! you can wear the same armor, they scale its attributes down proportionate to your level.

now that means your Hauby wont be as badass at level 10, in fact itll be just a heap of metal on your chest, but youd be surprised how well some peices keep thier attributes.

My buddy shadowwind partied with me and other members of my LS in Yhoater jungle, level 29 sync party, and he still had more INT from his reg gear (black cotahardie etc) than from any equip unsynced at that level.

in fact, i myself have noticed i get to keep quite a bit of acc bonuses from my equip when i Sync.

EXP? its exactly the same as if you WERE that level.

Can you merit? yes. i have, like 5 merits total even.

its GENIUS, seriously. this about sums it up:

Other than that we also have... RELIC!!!! $@#%ING FINALLY! ive run COR ever since the ToAU expansion first day and ive been waiting for this for a very long time.

oh yeah and BLU and PUP get some too >.>

also win: Mythic Weapons.

because who doesnt want to point a smaller version of a ship's cannon at his enemy and blow thier face off <3<3<3

(im really happy about that one!)

and accordingly theyve also made Nyzul a little easier.

more quests

more campaign shiz

more WotG missions.

seriously this was a damn good one guys, bravo

just bravo!

Gurren Lagann

2008-09-08T10:25:00.005-06:00

Well lets talk anime. now generally i'm a fan.

at least i was.

then they started making crap.

come on, deathnote? what is that seriously.

the most interesting deathnote thing ive seen was the spongebob deathnote thing.

that was hilarious.

anyways back to anime.

i guess you could say i started to lose faith, nothing looked appealing. i couldnt find a single new title after ergo proxy and law of ueki i could actually get into

(that oughtta show you im not too picky really)

then i saw this:

I had heard of it before. bascially off VGcats and a few other sites that do parodys.

then i saw the back.

from the makers of Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL.

FUCK YES

i love those two animes. who doesnt?

what you dont?

stop reading.

get out.

no really get out.

*ahem* now lets continue.

the thing was a double disc containing 8 episodes (value!) but i only got to see the first 3.

that actually a pretty good judging point. so basically if you don't like it after the first 3 episodes then you can successfully say you tried.

not that you'd need to try to hard, once you get past the first episode the animes a blast.

i would say... a good blend of rediculousity and hilarousness.

yes i know those aren't actually words.

thats why they work so well, because this anime is also crazy.

its a fast paced mech anime that makes fun of itself.

it takes place in a world in which people live in undergound hovels theyve built themselves into. the surface is forgotten and people act like Shia Le Bouf's character in holes.

(no they dont crash after having had one too many, although on that angle drunk mech opperators would be a great anime plot!!)

along comes evil monster that crashes in and self-doubting shinji boy uses a little tiny big-headed robot to fend it off and save his village.

on the outside he finds fuzzy star wars critter rip offs and more evil mecha than you can shake a test-type EVA at.

and Kamiya is great.

(you'll love Kamiya)

you'll also love her.

Yep, no Gainax creation would be complete without some fanservice running around throwing her gravity defying boobs around in the main character's face.

so seriously, do i need to say more?

im kinda wondering at this point.

why aren't you checking this out yet?

The House Bunny

2008-09-02T09:08:00.007-06:00

Well if anything theres a few good labor day past times... no working is not one of them.

sheesh.

who made that up anyways.

the last thing i want to do on a paid holiday is pull weeds out of my front lawn.

thankfully i don't have a lawn anymore so i don't have to worry about that.

anyways Labor Day past times, yes you can barbeque... but frankly there are too many bugs and grilling is too much work, so that leaves movies!

and because i was going to have a very hard time convincing Juli to go see The Dark Knight with me for the 4th time we saw this instead:

Yes, The House Bunny. now before you hurl assorted gay jokes at me first let me say. there was alot of clevage in it. clevage is good yes?

ok, now that thats out of the way let me tell you what i think.

remember ana farris from scary movie? from scary movie 2 and possibly 3 & 4? (i dont know i stopped watching after 2)

this is basically the same character. i mean its not like Ana Farris plays characters like this.... riiiiiiiight.

but hey do what youre good at, and Ana Farris is pretty hilarious.

also funny is Kat Dennings and Emma Stone.

Don't know who they are?

you do, you just don't know thier names.

Kat is Kathrine Keener's daughter from 40 yr old virgin and Emma Stone is Jules from Superbad.

It also has Kathrine mcPhee whom Juli tells me is an american idol, Tyson Ritter lead singer for the All American Rejects, Rumer Willis (Bruce's and Demi's daughter), and a bunch of other semi-famous people. kinda too many to keep track of.

its basically one of those ugly duckling stories that isnt entirely original but you forgive because

a) its funny

b) its funny?

well as Juli would say, "it was a cute movie" "cute" isnt a guy word so i can't use it :p

yes there were some very very cheesy parts. but they are thankfully overshadowed by the actually funny parts.

did i mention it was funny?

well thats about all i can really say it was entertaining, not a waste of money which is more than i can say for alot of the other movies out there

*cough disastermovie cough*

in summation: The House Bunny: Not a waste of time or money!

Something Amiss...

2008-08-26T11:36:00.010-06:00

Theres something wrong with this picture:

can you guess what it is? Its a hot girl dressed as a female blood elf from World of Warcraft. she obviously does not PLAY World of Warcraft.

cause that would be a contradiction.

ha. just kidding, actually ive noticed WoW has the highest concentration of female gamers. i have no idea why... maybe because its easy. who knows.

In other news i got my Jeep back from the shop today... man does it rock again. my drivers seat is a freakin throne!

i can't really see myself driving anything else but my jeep, its kinda weird and best of all i like being able to see over other vehicles.

i figure one of these days when im in a bad enough mood i will DRIVE over said vehicles. we'll see im still waiting for the road rage to bubble up that high.

now if only i could stop playing FFTA2 on my drive to work.

id be great!