Messiah College and too much time

Brak reminds me of college and all the time I frittered away enriching my character and sense of self. Totally time well spent.

Facebook

The ultimate in social interactivity and super internet timewaster. And I just signed up. Yikes. Well after a couple of friends who I see about once every 3 years or so told me to get on, well I did. So there, I'm on. Send me some flair or have your zombie hug me or whatever other wicket retaaded things you do on there.

I feel like such a follower...

The City of Ember

I'm reading this children's/young adult book that will soon be a movie and have really been enjoying it. It's totally a cross between Brazil and any of the Fallout games. And with Fallout 3 I can totally see Doon checking his Pipboy 3000 about air quality in those lower pipeworks!



Anyway I'll have a full on review when I'm done.

In response to our discussion at dinner

See I told you I read it somewhere.

Well here's something

I'm probably a little worse for watching that.

Brand new Dawn of War

If you played the last one you know why I'm blogging about Dawn of War II. Best 40K RTS out there. The original Dawn of War had a better opening vid. But this one does have a Space Marine dreadnought crushing a Eldar witch in one hand and flaming another in the face. (SWEET!)



Here's the original, you decide which is better. The dreadnought speaks in the second one. That's pretty cool.

Whole Crap Amazing Game News

Huge game news...just huge.

Blizzard just (well June 28th)announced Diablo 3.

Isometric view...random dungeons...random everything actually...3D graphics...partially destructive environments...larger RPG...more story focus...huge focus on amazing loot...

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!

Then on the kind of still huge news only slightly disappointing is THQ's announcement of their Warhammer 40k MMO. Only it's going to focus on the RPG side, and they recognize the importance of vehicles in the IP. What the heck is that? "They recognize?" What's to recognize, huge Space Marine Rhinos, Baslisks, I mean vehicles are an absolute must, no question.

So well I'm ecstatic about Diablo3 but I'll weep with Sir Francis Drake about what could have been. Gamesworkshop...you dudes really missed the boat in trying to have THQ go all RPG on ya. When has 40k ever really been about roleplay? Inquisitor fell on it's giant size models butt.

ELP and friends

There were these guys named Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They were joined much later by a group called The Arcade Fire. And now Coldplay has discovered the awesomeness of the wicked amazing super mind blowing organ. It should be mandatory at every single church to fire that bad boy up and lay out a few bars of Iron Butterfly, or well here are a few options for Mr. Church Organist.







And then the master...although I consider Handel to be pretty amazing himself.

Coldplay

Who knows how long this link will last but enjoy it while you can.

Some pretty sweet Christian imagery coming from these lyrics, granted the author worships Zeus but hey he's got a great big white beard too.

You need to check out Viva la Vida. A little pretentious, Roman cavalry choirs sound cool but it's also pretty invented. I can't help to think he meant Calvary.

Well still for the bursting at the seams Brit pop scene these guys still have it. Catchy tunes and sweet riffs.

After seeing Rambo...

That little 20 minute scene with Sly on the .50 caliber is nothing compared to the awesomeness of SLY VS ARNIE!!!! Enjoy.

POPUPS!

Seems my little visitor counter was a Trojan for popups! How nefarious! Well I have since destroyed it. We were at 105 meatsacks though. Noiice. That's the way I say nice nowadays. It's like no-ice just mashed together with a bit of a Cranston slur, kind of like a New York accent.

Anyway, if your on, and I know about 105 of you were, throw up a comment if you get a popup from this blog. Thanks.

Hey, It's a lady!

Let me pour another glass of Courvoisier, because another lady has joined us in the great blogosphere. Apparently not into handles, she totally needs one. Dred Ben I hereby appeal to your sense of webness to get your wife a sufficiently cool and illustrative name. So if you are jonesing for stories about sleep deprived mothers and all sorts of creative activities with finger nail polish and applesauce than look no further than... Eye of the Hurricane!

Now I have to go and work on some of these busted links of mine.

Only two people will care...

and out of those two one is only being polite.

What am I talking about? Well the Heroes V Tribes of the East Expansion contains both the Orcs and the Dwarves!! Wohoo! I thought I'd have to buy the Hammer of Fate expansion for those bearded dudes! Yeah!

See what I meant about only two people caring?

Yeah, that's on my PC

I'm starting a new little segment called...Yeah, that's on my PC.

It's really just a way of me getting all excited about finally being able to play in the big leagues again.

So here is a little trailer for...Crysis. I'm currently running it at 1400X900 res, (not shabby) frame rate is great, graphic settings are MEDIUM. I will tweak them tonight and see what more I can eek out. I honestly don't know if I'm running DX9c or DX10. That I will check tonight since DX10 is the shiznit.

So without further delay I give you... CRYSIS!!

Check out Weezer with the Memes!

The man in the hat is back

SPOILERS!!!

Pyschic Commies? Lost Amazonian Cities? Indy's a Dad?

The new Indiana Jones certainly isn't on par with Raiders by any stretch of the imagination. However, it doesn't leave the franchise a smoking ruin like Lucas did with Star Wars.

It starts off at a decent pace, then scared the crap out of me with this scene in which the lighting was so bad, the dialogue so wooden, it looked like they just threw it together on some mini sound stage. It was scary, 5 minutes into the movie and it seriously looked like something a bunch of fan boys threw together with some old guy that kind of looked like Harrison Ford. Thankfully once Indy enters the warehouse all of that disappears, but it was a nail biting 2 minutes. (The new Indiana Jones looks like this crap!!????)

Typical Indiana Jones running, whipping, punching action, it's nice to hear those gunshot punches again. The pyschic Commies are cool, over the top in the way you expect pyschic Commies would be.

The jokes about Indy being old stop after about 20 minutes and you'll appreciate that. He actually seems to get younger as the film continues. When the movie really speeds up its pure gold. The scene some reviewers are calling Doomtown is amazing (completely unbelievable but absolutely awesome). When the movie slows down it also is great. We learn some serious info about Indy's past. Fought in WWII, he did? He was in the OSS. He was? He was a colonel? Holy crap! Just some really cool stuff about him.

They get chased all over creation in typical Indy fashion, they grave rob and get caught and all sorts of typical Indy stuff. It honestly is a great ride.

Now, of course they still manage to throw in a few scenes that are just ridiculous. Not ridiculous like Doomtown (that's just plan amazingly super awesome) but ridiculous like, I'm embarrassed for them. The tarzan scene is one. Ugh. I mean, doesn't anyone realize how bad a scene like that looks? Just stupid. The fencing scene, just goes from mildly silly to downright stupid.

The first time Indy sees Marion? Absolutely amazing. It was like Harrison Ford was seeing Karen Allen for the first time in 19 years. Really really good shot.

Shia is good. Ray Winstone is tiresomely flat.

The one bummer is that the movie is really not that violent. All of the Indy movies have guys getting punched out of cars and boats and so on. But then there are those shock scenes were you see a rotting corpse shoot out of the wall and its face turns towards the camera its swollen rotting tongue protruding from its grinning maw. YIKES! And then you have the piece de resistance, in which someone gets their face melted or exploded or they rot at high speed. Yet in this film it is surprisingly lacking in this gory awesome moments. The big one at the end of every Indy flick is absent in this one. They kind of have one but totally drop the ball. Sirfrancisdrake and I could dream up about a hundred different ways to have that super gory end set piece and still keep the PG-13 rating. Remember when Belloq became a conduit for the wrath of God and blasted all those nazis? And then his head exploded? PG-13 and awesome. The gory death of IJatKotCS (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) not so gory not so awesome. It could have been great, oh man could it have been wild. Sir Francis get back to me and will chat about what it should have looked like.

Anyway, baddies could have been badder, natives could have actually done something, they could have concocted a better chase scene with the Commies. Maybe one over the falls and down the river! That would have been great!

It's just after the fight scenes of all the Bournes, video games with absolutely breathtaking vistas and amazing cave delving action that this Indy comes off as kind of quaint. The fights should still maintain their gunshot type of over the top stylings but they need to be grittier. Like Indy getting his face pressed against the tank tread gritty. All the fights are like a bunch of pugilists beating the snot out of each other but refusing to fall over. Indy needs to mix it up with Jason Bourne and John McClane.

The cave dwelling scenes need to be exploded so that they wander into massive fantastical panoramas! Huge forgotten temples and ancient fanes. And tribal indians that actually do something.

Del Toro and Jackson should do the next Indy.

Well go see it and get back to me.

DEVIL HORNS!

This will be my themesong when I get my new PC up and running for a glorious game of Mount and Blade with 1000 units on screen!

Summer's Here!

The Boss said it best.



Well, the streetlights shine down on Blessing Avenue
Lovers they walk by, holding hands two by two
A breeze crosses the porch, bicycle spokes spin 'round
My jackets on, I'm out the door
And tonight I'm gonna burn this town down

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

A kids rubber ball smacks
Off the gutter 'neath the lamp light
Big bank clock chimes
Off go the sleepy front porch lights
Downtown the stores alight as the evening's underway
Things been a little tight
But I know their gonna turn my way

And the girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

Frankie's diner, an old friend on the edge of town
The neon sign spinning round
Like a cross over the lost and found
The fluorescent lights flick over Pop's Grill
Shaniqua brings the coffee and asks "Fill?" and says "Penny for your thoughts now my boy, Bill"

She went away, she cut me like a knife
Hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life
In just a glance, down here on magic street
Loves a fool's dance
And I ain't got much sense, but I still got my feet

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

Anyone up for a campaign? anyone?

boy I miss those days.

You see it coming but MAN!

What a moving commerical and for insurance! Wow.