Nacogdoches: We Got Trees Part 3

It's our second official day here in Nacogdoches and we are getting settled in. Have been doing the recon/shopping/oh crap we need a screwdriver routine. Made a rather disconcerting foray into the Uber-Walmart down the road. I don't know what my problem is but I get rather confused and over-stimulated in big box stores. All the lights and colors and mind numbing array of products have a "deer in headlights" effect on me. All I wanted was a cat crap tray and a Master Lock and ended up wandering lost through aisles of items I couldn't possibly justify using but wanted them any way. Guns! Ammunition! Fishing gear! Frisbees! Tennis rackets! Jumbo coolers I could stash hunks of drifters in! 600 varieties of "Institutional" sized pickles! Oh and the locks are in the back fucking corner of the store. So after choosing a lock I found myself in the toy aisles and there it was for $10.88:






Yeah baby. While assembling the set I realized that I should have been playing with LEGOs for the last ten years. There have been some serious advances in the LEGO field. Seriously. The next kit I want to pick up is this one:

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Just a quick plug for All My Sons Movers. These guys were awesome. We hired them to help us move and they just rocked. I've used movers before and they were hired goons. All My Sons made things ridiculously easy and if it weren't for the fact that wires got crossed and we couldn't get in to the apartment it would have gone smooth as silk. Yeah, if you need movers these are the guys to go with.

Here are a few of the tricks we discovered during this move:

1. All that paper lying around - the stack of over due bills and threats from debt collectors? - shred it and use it as packing material. None of our stuff that we packed this way broke.


2. A la #1 phone books. You're never gonna recycle them. Don't bullshit yourself. Use it to wrap glasses and mugs and assorted trivets. It works.


3. Don't throw out all the empty six-pack cardboard carriers. Use them for all that crap in your kitchen that is a major pain the ass to pack but won't throw out: bottles of hot sauce, spices, oils, vinegar, dried goods, condiments, jars of chile paste, and other assorted non perishable items. Load the six-packs up and put them in the box. I used flattened Lone Star boxes to layer and add additional packing.


4. Don't drink so much that you can use beer packaging as packing material for an entire kitchen.


5. Anti-depressants.


6. Do your laundry before you pack.


7. Pack a suitcase with a couple of days worth of clothes. Having a couple changes of clean dry clothes makes a world of difference.


8. Play "We're going to Russia" and pack toilet paper.

I hope these tips are helpful.

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Not too much else to currently report. I'm a bit behind on my gaming but have begun to rig up everything. Next step is setting up speakers and all that goodness.

Nacogdoches - We got trees. Part 2.

Well folks we are here. It went 80% smoothly. There were a few moments of blind panic - like when we arrived expecting the landlord to have left the key - but all in all everything is a'ight. We'll be back in Austin this weekend and then pretty regular after that. Have some pictures of before and after the move. Here ya go:

Yeah, not much rhyme or reason but you get the gist. More news to follow. I think I need to take another nap.

Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System

I finally gave these speakers some legs and I'm impressed.  The other night put them through their paces.  Granted, I'll never be able to play them that loud ever again but woo.  The old Polks are amazing speakers and I'd love to keep them for the garage/workshop/dancehall but they never had the clarity these had.  If you're in the market for a boxed set of new speakers for a reasonable price I wholeheartedly recommend these.

Still getting used to Safari

If the layout or the fonts look a bit off then you'll just have to be patient.  I'm trying to get used to Safari and also trying to monkey a bit with the HTML.  A buddy of mine - cheers to you Mark - taught himself CSS and I think I'm gonna stick my toe in during my break.

If you have any suggestions - a la layout/colour/font I'd appreciate them.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the Unofficial state fish of Hawaii.  The only reason that I know this is because of Sarah.  Whenever she says this we giggle uncontrollably.  In any case it's an interesting piece of trivia. 

The packing and moving prep is going according to plan.  We are now up to nearly thirty boxes of books.  I'm not sure why we're so surprised.  In car today Amanda asked if we wanted to stop by Half Price Books.  I said that we don't need any more books.  She replied, "Well we never need more books."

On one hand it's kind of daunting looking at all the crap we have to pack but realistically we don't have that much.  No fridge, no washer/dryer, no major appliances or accessories, and really not that much kitchen stuff.  I only had four boxes of CDs and three boxes of VHS.  You know, VHS, kind of like a cassette that has movies on it.

Whatever.  Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

Hooligan Youth Reviews is moving away. It is your fault, like when Mommy left Daddy.

We are moving from Austin, TX to Nacogdoches, TX on June 17th.

Fortunately we are not being run out of town by people with pitchforks and torches. Amanda and I are going to school in the Fall and will probably be living in a Kenmore box burning our collection of sci-fi for warmth by Winter.

Hooligan Youth Reviews will be on hiatus for a while. I am taking some time off from pretty much everything except sleeping, cooking, and gaming. With any luck I'll be able to catch up on my movie reviews and play some games that aren't GTA IV but I can't promise anything.

Drop us a line or give a call or send an email if you want.

Hope you are all well and we will be in touch ASAP.

Awesome article in The Onion.

The Onion has a very amusing article about GTA IV. Here is the link. Yes.

New Dubby Conquerers (2001) - Seeed

Once upon a time I was supposedly ruder than rude and tougher than tough. Boots and braces. Lager lout. If we weren't at a goth/industrial club we were at a ska show. DC had a late 90s resurgence. The Pietasters keep bringing crowds in. The NYC SKA MOB had sets at the 9:30. The Skatalites played at...well everywhere. Tiny bands from along the East Coast and the Midwest opened and sometimes headlined at places like The Velvet Lounge or Phantasamoria. One of the owners of La Cueva told me about the club he was opening with his friend when he was a teller at the Bank of America and I came up to the counter in my jacket. We saw Mephiskapheles several places. The Stubborn All Stars played regular like.

And then I moved to Austin in '99. Seen a couple of shows but it ain't the same. 'Cept that Skatalites show Amanda realized what the hype was about. Of course I have to say that The Stingers are a solid Soul/Riddim band from ATX.

Basically Ska and Riddim has taken a back seat over the last few several years. I pick up a Trojan Boxset here and there but I haven't been really paying attention to what the American labels have been putting out. The Easy Dub All-Stars have put out two excellent cover albums: Dubside of the Moon and Radiodread. Personally I think Dubside is a better album but thats just me.

Like I said in a previous post Seeed is a great band I just found out about. Now those of you know me know I penchant for bizarre world music. Not quite as bad Paul Simon or David Byrne but still...

Seeed's New Dubby Conquerers is a solid solid solid album. In all honesty I don't know why it took me seven years to find this album. Maybe I should read the emails I get from skaworld.com every once in a while. This album is brilliant in a way I haven't heard since the heyday of The Stubborn All Stars. Although Seeed has a sticky Collie riddim that makes me hanker for a four footer.

New Dubby Conquerers is a summertime album. Pool party, chicks in bikinis, fat boy grill masterin', just that right before lager takes control but you're sweatin out more lager than you're takin in, everythin a'ight, put this on random with What's Goin' On, Innervisions, and The Harder They Come. For a starter mix that should do you just fine.

Nitty gritty:

• Dancehall Caballeros. I don't give a shit what these krauts are saying. It's dope. I'm not well versed in Dancehall. The mix-up on this makes for a track is a brilliant album opener. I'd sell my mother for sin to hear this ear bleeding loud in a klub.
• Riddim No. 1 has a sample beat of the intro riff off Could you be loved or whatever shite later Marley song it was. Other than that the song is all on the plus side. It's got bounce. It's got the kind of bounce that the ladies like. Fun but vaguely dirty.
• Pape Noah has a classic Third Wave sound. No seriously, listen to Hepcat's Out of Nowhere.
• Walk Upright is downstepper. The kind of song you slow dance kind of naughty wit your rude girl.
• Dickies B is the single video song. Man, I tell you what...this song has bounce. This is the kind of shit you want to block party. Everyone with an ounce of Soul in their soul can shake their ass to this. I really want to hook up the old Polk monsters to hear this song.
• Psychedelic Kingdom is a classic cool down. Time for a pint, time to risk a snog, leaning elbow first against the wall trying not piss on your brogues.
• Sensimilla. Syrupy. Once upon a time...
• We Seeed. Brilliant song sampling Junior Murvin's Police & Thieves. Sure, we've heard the sample before but in this sample it's a bon mot. Something to make to smile while you sway and dance.
• Tide is High. Once a cover of cover then Blondie fekked bout with it. These lads, either because they actually give a shit or I'm drunk enough to think this is brilliant, have done an excellent cover.
• Top of the City is the type of song that would make me shift from boot tip to boot tip and roll back and put my heels in and back into it. This is a show off the rocksteady steps with a heavy bass sway. Ladies and gentlemen he pulled off that back pivot lager intact.
• Fire the Hidden. Another song that you hear while waiting for a lager. Elbows pulled back on the rest. Too lagered to lean smile and put that bobcuts pint on your tab.
• Miss Understanding. That same girl gives you a half smile, knowing you're laggered and harmless, but kind of cute in a stumbling way, she's seen worse. So she gives you a dance. And maybe if you can remember which foot is which foot she might give you a real number.

In case you couldn't guess I love this album.

Seeed zwei.

This is the song that got us into them:

Ich lieben dich Seeed.

We saw a piece about Seeed last week on current.com about this Berlin dub/reggae/downtempo/New Orleans march band. I downloaded their Magic Monks legally and it is a solid solid album. Here's the video for the song that isn't available for download but gives you a good taster:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) dir. Steven Spielberg. Spoilers!

It is impossible to write an impartial review of this movie. An entire generation of men and women love Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of the first movies I can remember seeing in the theater. In Second Grade I wrote a story titled Indiana Jones vs the Great White Shark. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first movie I saw in the theater by myself. My father, Grandfather, and I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade more than several times together. Indiana Jones was the template upon which I built my ideas of what it meant to be a man. Indiana Jones was my hero.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a disappointment. Not a total disappointment but in some ways that makes it worse. I can forgive Indy for leaving a pregnant Marion. I can forgive his weary distrust of the Atomic Age and eventual pathetic death from radiation sickness. I can forgive Cate Blanchett's "Moose and Squirrel" accent. I can forgive the poor misuse of both John Hurt and Ray Winstone. I can forgive John Williams' piss poor rehashed cues and themes. Hell, I can even forgive "The Beef".

What I can't forgive is the fact that the magic is gone. Who said that this story, that this script, was worth a mummer's fart? Who said, "Yeah, this is good."? Who said, "This is worthy of a final Indiana Jones movie."? That person should have a rabid badger attatched to their taint. Before Amanda and I left the theater we looked at one another and said, "Aliens? Really?". On the ride back to the hotel all we could say was, "Aliens? Really?". From the beginning of the movie there was little mystery about what the plot device was. 1957. Area 51. "Okay, maybe it's going to be a race to unlock an alien superweapon that..." Wait. What? Alien superweapon? When did Indiana Jones get all Chariots of the Gods? Yeah, we'll just white wash the Judeo-Christian mumbo jumbo of the first and third movies and...aliens? Really? Are you sure it wasn't midichlorians? From there the movie just kind of staggers along ticking off marks on the Indiana Jones checklist. The problem is that it doesn't. Crystal Skull doesn't have the mystery, thrill, excitement, "How's Indy gonna escape this time?", or fun of the earlier installments. Amanda said she looked at my face several times during the movie and said that I went from, "YAY! to eh."

There are moments of goodness in Crystal Skull. Most of these moments involve Indy using phrases and mannerisms his father used - i.e. "This is intolerable!". There are moments between Indy and Marion which capture the fire of Raiders. "The Beef" is often being beaten and pummeled and made to look foolish. The Atomic Cafe theme running through the begininng of the movie is pretty neat. Marion is in it. Indy never loses his hat.

Some reviewers have said that if you just take Crystal Skull for what it is worth and go for the ride then you'll enjoy the movie. Fuck that. I'm gonna pretend that this installment never happened and you're talking to a guy whose favorite is Temple of Doom.

Aliens? Really?

My current custom playlist for GTA IV.

1. Main Title 2:19 David Shire The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three
2. Kaneda 3:11 Akira Symphonic Suite
3. Main Theme 3:12 Jacques Loussier Dark Of The Sun
4. Main Theme - Carter Takes A Train 3:00 Roy Budd
5. Ricky's Theme 3:44 The Beastie Boys
6. Summertime Killer 3:40 Luis Bacalov
7. Main Title 2:36 Hideakira Sakurai The Best of Lone Wolf and Cub
8. L Arena 4:46 Ennio Morricone
9. Zorba The Greek 2:56 John Murphy & David Hughes Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
10. Parade of the Slave Children (From Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) 4:53 John Williams
11. Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra (From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) 2:48 John Williams
12. Battle of the Heroes 3:42 John Williams Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
13. Getting Nowhere In A Hurry - Instrumental 3:11 Roy Budd Get Carter
14. Main Titles 3:42 Vangelis Blade Runner
15. Hong Kong Underground 4:43 Jesper Kyd Hitman Contracts
16. Vegas Blood Money 6:35 Jesper Kyd Hitman: Bloodmoney
17. Winds Over The Neo-Tokyo 2:48 Geinoh Yamashirogumi Akira
18. Nightstalker 1:45 Kenji Kawai GHOST IN THE SHELL
19. Theme From "To Kill A Dead Man" 4:26 Portishead Sour Times EP

GTA IV Secret - Spoiler

If you get Playboy X's apartment - head over to change clothes. Cycle through the outfits. Eventually you will land on the outfit that the protagonist of GTA III wore. Kind of kicks ass and is only available there...as far as I can tell.

The Sword - Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians

This is quite possibly one of the most awesome things I have seen in ages. Thanks to James for sending this my way.

My first impressions of GTA IV - about a third of the way through the game.

If you've been following any of the reviews online or off then you will know that GTA IV is one of the most amazing games to ever be released. There are certainly a few minor problems here and there but over all these are simply quibbles. I'm gonna get the complaints out of the way:

1. The soundtrack isn't my cup of tea. The score is great and some of the stations - i.e. Vladivostok & IF99 playing Eastern European pop and Afropop/Funk respectively - are a blast. The Latin station is a welcome change. I was happy to hear a Jazz station though I kind of miss a Classical station. Journey FM does a decent job of filling the Classical slot though with ambient Tangerine Dream-esque tunes. There are a good number of stations that are hit or miss for me. The rock stations are meh. One is old hits DJ'd by Iggy Pop and the other is new white belt rock DJ'd by Juliette Lewis. The rest of the stations are okay, some modern urban crap, rap classics, some smooth gettin ass music about shorties, and an electronic station I always skip past. I usually end up just turning off the radio.
2. I want more clothing options. So far there are only three stores. Yes this is a ridiculous gripe.
3. I miss taking pictures of stuff. In past games you could take snapshots and save them. Maybe this happens later in the game.

And those are the only three I can think of right now.

You can read all the other reviews about how awesome GTA IV is. It truly takes gaming up to a new level. There are countless moments of "Holy shit I can do that?!?" and "Holy shit look at that!".

What really makes GTA IV an amazing experience for me though are:

1. The character interaction. A lot of the game depends on social interaction and keeping up with various characters through out the game via phone, hanging out and email. It's kind of bizarre because I am so bad at this in RL but have some what mastered it in IV.
2. The high quality of writing. The dialogue and story are top notch. IV is much more serious and adult in content than any other in the series. I don't mean adult purient I mean characters are dealing with some pretty awful issues on a personal level. This lends a level of sophistication that's refreshing in gaming. A lot of the wacky humor the series was known for has also been scaled down.
3. The overall theme of addiction and recovery is pretty astounding and handled in a way that blows me away. I actually wonder if the writer is in recovery. What could easily be over wrought After School special junk is not. The addictions run the gamut from gambling to alcoholism to drug use to violence. I am looking forward to finding out what happens with the main story line.

More news to follow.

MEIN GOTT!

Besides loving long walks on the beach, Hitler was a strict vegetarian, anti-smoker, and loved dogs and children. He truly was the personification of evil.

BANZAI!

The Easter Bunny believes in you or "One of these things is not like the other."

Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2, There Will Be Blood, and I'm not dead just working.

Apologies for the long delay in posting folks. Nothing too earth shattering to report lately. Just a lot of work and tooth pain.

Have two quick reviews:

Picked up Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 and yes, Virginia, it is awesome. It is also hard as all get out even on the regular difficulty. I prefer this game over Call of Duty 4 but the combat is completely different. You can't charge the enemy apeshit in Vegas 2. For one -If you do you will blasted into little chunks of meat with scraps of fabric and hair stuck to them. For two - there's not a melee attack. The cover system is just my style and I like the shift from FPS to 3PS when you take cover. The graphics and the sound are awesome - especially on the new speakers. I like the level design - there's enough variation to keep things interesting. One gameplay factor I like is the fact that a second player can pick up and play either the story mode or "Terrorist Hunt" - track down and eliminate all the terrorists on the level. I haven't put it to the test yet but the next time me and the lads hang out and game I think we might give it a shot.

There Will Be Blood is one hell of a movie. In a way I am amazed that it's by the same guy who made Magnolia & Boogie Nights. There Will Be Blood is nearly Shakespearean in its scope. Daniel Day Lewis seems to have taken a new direction in his acting - that of the insufferable bastard - and it works. Apologies to sound cheezy but this movie plays like a meditation on the evil that men do - to themselves and others. Perfectly paced and stunningly filmed There Will Be Blood is a real movie - a real cinematic experience. Instead of some gruelling "War is bad." NPR totbag movie or some totally insipid rom-com or gornographic throw away There Will Be Blood nails you to your seat and keeps you there. A movie like this has renewed my faith in film. Now I just have to watch No Country for Old Men.

Final Fantasy VI Advanced (1994) Square Enix

Final Fantasy III was released in the US on 10/20/94. It was actually the sixth in the series in Japan but this ain't Japan. I had grown up on Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, & Ultima for the NES and the SNES but Final Fantasy III was something totally different entirely. This was melodrama, death, destruction, love, loss, a psychotic villian, a large and varied cast of kick ass heroes & heroines, hidden characters, some warped humor, and some truly difficult profanity inducing boss battles. Final Fantasy III or VI or whatever you want to call it is a completely awesome RPG that is a true classic of the genre.

I haven't played it since 94 but had been hankering to pick it up since I got a DS. For the last week I haven't touched my 360. At first I thought the game was much easier than I remembered. Levelling was pretty smooth and for some reason I remembered locations of items and the hidden characters. Combat - even boss battles - was a snap. Then I hit this point in the story where everything goes to hell and damn it the difficulty level ramped up.

The story is really frickin' awesome and I can't remember the last time I had such a good time with a Final Fantasy title, even VII. The cast of characters in pretty large - not Suikoden large but still. Sure you can only use four at a time but character management is pretty simple but with enough fiddling to satisfy stat-line whores.

The graphics are good but in some ways I wish I could actually play this on a TV because the sprites are so wee. The soundtrack is still memorable and oddly catchy.

All in all if you see any copy of this game pick it up, even if you have to buy a SNES, GBA, or DS to play it. That is of course if you're a RPG fan.

Nacogdoches: The Oldest Town in Texas a.k.a. "We got trees!" - PART 1.

As promised here are pictures and a bit of commentary:

Masons...and uh...here is their office in Nacogdoches.




This is the place that I am obsessed with - the Main St. Theater. It's closed and rundown and I wants it.

Creepy Easter display on Main Street. Antique & Collectible Creepiness. Reminds me of Castle Rock's Needful Things.

X-Files 2 preview.

Call of Duty 4 (GOTY) avec new maps. Nacogdoches news.

Coming April 3rd are three new multiplayer maps for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The one I am excited about is the Chinatown map. Though I am not the world's best player - nor do I care to be - I've played through the maps about a million times. I'm trying to resist the urge to pick up a copy of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2. Apparently Vegas 2 is a much more tactical style shooter instead of being from the "run & gun" school.

I have a copy of Final Fantasy VI for the GBA on hold. Have to dig out some games to turn in for credit. This sticks in my mind as perhaps the best of the series as I played it on the SNES. Back in '94 it was released in the States as Final Fantasy III even though it was the sixth released in Japan. I wonder if some of the hidden characters are still available. Hmmm...I will review when/after I pick it up.

I had forgotten that we have some pictures of Nacogdoches plus we're going to an open House for the campus this weekend so we might have more pictures. They will get posted.

New speakers? Accepted into SFA? Assorted other jibber jabber?

Most important news first. Found out today that I am actually accepted into Stephen F Austin State University. That's right folks I'm going to the learnatorium to get my college on. I'm going to focus on History and see if I can't get into something along the lines of Conservation & Preservation. I'm a bit nervous about the whole going to school thing but I'll get over it.

In celebration I purchased new speakers: Harman Kardon HKTS-14. They are a few years older but according to the reviews and contacting Harman Kardon's customer support the two differences between the HKTS-14 and the newer HKTS-18 are: the 14 has a 12" subwoofer and the 18 comes with a 10" and the 14 is silver where the 18 is black. For the substantial price difference between the sets there was no reason for me to just buy the newer set.

Now if any of you fine folks - or anyone you know - are in the market for speakers please let me know. The speakers I currently have are still excellent speakers. They are just kind of huge and old and need a good home. There's two floor standing Polks, a Bose VCS-10 center speaker, and a set of Bose Acoustimass that I might just hold on to.

More news to follow. Now is time to tote that bale.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) Jeff Lindsay

After watching several episodes of Dexter - starring Michael C. Hall - I decided I wanted to read the book that the series was initially based on. I eventually found a copy while wandering around the Hastings in Nacogdoches.

If you're not familiar with the show then I whole heartedly recommend watching it. CBS is showing it as part of their Sunday night programming. Basically the premise is that Dexter is a serial killer who works as a blood splatter expert for the Miami PD. His victims are only other serial killers or just plain bad folks. There's a great deal of humorous internal dialogue as he pretends to be a regular citizen. I like the side characters and am beginning to actually be interested in their stories. It's a good show.

The first Dexter novel - Darkly Dreaming Dexter - is not a bad crime novel. It's not a bad serial killer novel. The writing has a rapid fire pace that I appreciate. It's set in Miami and I get the feeling that if I was from Miami I recognize streets and places and the general feel of the place. Most of the events in this book I recognized from the first season I have watched so it wasn't very surprising. I pretty much enjoyed the book until the last quarter. I even read the last two chapter twices thinking that I missed something. Maybe I did because man, what a stupid cock-a-mamie ending. After I finished it I said, "Really?" I had to wonder if he actually had a good ending and his publisher made him change it. When "the twist" arrives you can almost hear the dun dun dun. I beat M. Night Shamalyan thought it was brilliant.

I hope the show doesn't continue to follow the book. If it this ends like Darkly Dreaming Dexter I won't be able to continue watching it.

For you DS owning Guitar Hero fans...

Yes. It is real. Guitar Hero: On Tour will be coming out this summer. Here's a video. Keep your hand out of your pants.

Thor's Hammer entire store up for grabs?

Apparently Thor's Hammer went under and the entire stock is up on the auction block. Here's the ad on craigslist.

Yet another Dune remake and more!

Saw on Variety that there's going to another Dune adaptation in the works. This one will be directed by Peter Berg (The Kingdom). Apparently the producer just got rights to the story and they are looking for a writer. I guess that's cool but I have to wonder who's going to be in it. I predict Shia The Beef will be Paul Atredies. You heard it here first. 2:1.

* * *

On the right is one of the music players from GTA IV. Looks like this particular world/funk station is being hosted by Femi Kuti. All signs point to the fact that this game is going to be more awesome than...well anything.

* * *

Well I didn't know that the terms bobbie and peeler (both British terms for police) originated from the name of British Home Secretary Robert Peel. Robert Peel was instrumental in helping Parliament create the London Metropolitan Police Act in 1829. Now the line, "He's a Peeler 716 come to arrest the Zulu." makes much more sense.

* * *

Why are people so surprised when I know off the top of my head wether or not we have a book in stock? I only look at the fucking things day in and day out for months on end. If there was anything interesting or good in stock I'd know about it - and it probably wouldn't be out on the shelves for people to get all grubby. Perhaps people doubt my cognitive abilities because of the dunce cap and rope of drool hanging from my lip.

* * *

More shouting and jumping up and down to be continued. Stay tuned.

The Strangers (May 2008) - Trailer

The Strangers - Official Trailer.
Uploaded by LivGirl47

Bully: Scholarship Edition (2008)

Rockstar blah blah blah fanboy blah blah blah. Bully blah blah blah fanboy blah blah blah w00t! Haven't tried the multiplayer blah blah blah.

Pick this up because GTA IV doesn't come out for another month. It's actually a really fun (and funny) game - despite the freezes a.k.a. "technical issues". Just save often and restart if there's a freeze up. It doesn't happen very often.

10,000 B.C. (2008) dir. Roland Emmerich

I wouldn't have wanted to see this movie except for the fact that I love insane prehistory tales, weird adventure tales, and ripping yarns. Historically inaccurate? Hey egghead go back to your learn-a-terium. What kicks more ass? Cavemen digging around in their own filth or cavemen being enslaved and using mammoths to build pyramids? If I wanted science and crap I'd watch National Geographic.

10, 000 B.C. is pulp. Pure, stupid, stare slack jawed at the moving pictures, "Oh, what the hell." fun. Does it suck? Yes. Is it awesome? Yes. It's the kind of movie you go see when you visit the family. We saw it on vacation at the only theater in Nacogdoches, TX. Frankly I think the best way to have seen 10,000 B.C. would be at a drive-in theater. Plus if it had been rated R it could have been totally awesome - as is it lacks both nudity and gore.

If you've seen the preview you know what you're getting. This ain't Chekov but it doesn't need to be. I think part of the reason I like the movie so much is because I am imagining Roland Emmerich talking people into making the movie. Sitting around with his producers and saying, "You know, I've always wanted to make a prehistoric movie." It makes me laugh thinking of the pitch and people working on the movie having a good time and saying, "ROFL, we're making a caveman movie!"

Another plug for Chromehounds and assorted minor items.

I am going to plug Chromehounds again because I am addicted to it - like a fat kid loves cake. I've actually started watching videos of 'Hound builds and combat. It's a good thing I have an understanding woman because I would never get one - this game is one the verge of preventing me from sleeping or leaving the house.

I did pick up a copy of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the 360. I couldn't help it. The previous incarnation for the PS2 was a solid and fun Rockstar outing. This edition is more of the same plus some new additions. A review will be upcoming.

In other news...well...there isn't really any other news. Hope you guys are doing well.

Diary of the Dead (2008) dir. George A Romero

"When there's no more room in Hell the dead will blog."

That's kind of how Diary of the Dead felt. The movie wasn't bad - it was better than Land of the Dead - but in no way was it even remotely close to the original. If you've seen the rest of Romero's zombie movies you know what you are getting: paint by number zombies, some gore - though this one was a lot less gory than I was hoping for, a touch of humor, and heavy handed social commentary. Pretty much you are either going to see this movie or you're not.

The basic idea is that some film students are out filming when the zom-pacalypse breaks out. Most of the movie is shot from a docu-aspect with the maker keeping the camera stuck to his face even when zombies are attacking his friends in front of him. He keeps filming because "people have to know the truth". Film maker, assorted fellow students, and drunken Professor drive around Pennsylvania filming the truth, dispatching zombies, and checking in on relatives. When I think about it Diary of the Dead is pretty paint by numbers. The heavy handed social commentary consists of the Government/Media lying to us, Homeland Security being a joke, if the way humanity treats itself when the chips are down (terrible) is humanity really worth saving (I don't need a zom-pacalypse to answer that), and it's up to the digital culture to carry the shining torch of truth. Oh yeah and Romero has a cameo as a government/military official telling us, "Everything is going to be okay."

At least it was better than Land of the Dead. I guess. The more I think about it the less I like it.

Gary Gygax: HP 0. Resurrected in better plane.

Gary Gygax has passed on at the age of 69. He was one of the guys in the USA to develop what we know of as RPGs. If you're familiar with the game Dungeons & Dragons - or any of the many TSR (formerly TSR) products - then you have Gygax to thank. Pretty much RPGs wouldn't be jack without his contributions. Cheers to you Gary Gygax, cheers to you.

Hedgie pic Monday.

As some of you may know I love hedge hogs. I don't know why. Normally I am a cat person but there's just something about hedge hogs. In any case thanks to Jenna for the picture.

Rating!

Check it out. Over there on the right. A rating from blogged.com. Not too shabby. You should go over there and shamelessly plug my site. Or not.

Chromehounds (2006) - Initial thoughts.

I am only a couple of hours into Chromehounds and already I am hooked. It wasn't really all that great until I linked up four assault machine guns to fire at once. In the immortal words of Clarence Boddicker, "GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!". Then I started really tinkering with constructing - with what limited resources I have - a mech or 'Hound as they are known in this game(sidenote: If you're not familiar with the term mech then just think about big fucking robots with big fucking guns).

I really dig this game and look forward to seriously putting some time into it. Basically the whole premise is "Blah, blah, blah, war. Blah, blah, blah, mercenaries. Join a squad, train, get better gear, blast the living hell out of other squads. Attempt to win war. It's the customization and squad combat on Live that I'm looking forward to. I just have to keep building my funds and supplies so my 'Hound is the equivalent of a soapbox racer at the Indy 500.

If I can get a screen capture I'll put it on here.

Rise (2007) dir. Sebastian Gutierrez

Rise lasted about a week in the theater and it's easy to see why. Vampire movies are a tough sell that seem to come into their own when they are available to watch at home. I don't know why and that may be a whacko guess but it seems true. The general public just doesn't really seem to care or it might be that most vampire movies are pretty bad.

Rise isn't bad. It's not great but it's not bad and the amount of nudity and blood definitely improved it. At one point I joked that the movie should've been called "Lucy Liu doesn't wear a shirt". One of the high points of the movie is Cameron Richardson in lingerie. Seriously.

The acting isn't bad at all. Some of the best scenes are between Michael Chikilis and Lucy Liu. The score is fairly forgetable. Amanda noticed that the sound editing was off or needed to be dialed back - footsteps sounded absurdly loud.

Amanda enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did but then again she's a vampire movie fan.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, assorted news & notes.

Hope you folks had a good weekend. We laid low and since chores were done last weekend there wasn't anything pressing that needed doing. I jumped back into Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and polished off the main story line of Shivering Isles and the Knights of the Nine quest. I still have a pretty ridiculous amount of gameplay left in it if I really wanted to get my money's worth but really - do I really care that much about closing all sixty Oblivion Gates? What sucks is I'd like to create a new character but I don't want to have to go through all the work - to the tune of 230+ hours of gaming.

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Picked up Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS Lite - basically a point & click puzzle game. I really enjoy it but occasionally the puzzles make me feel like this Penny Arcade comic. I really do enjoy the puzzles. They range from "move the matchstick..." to optical illusions to word problems to "How the fuck was I supposed to know that !?!". I kind of like the fact that it's as challenging as it is but there's often a straight forward solution if you don't get frazzled. The game also has a really unique look to it - almost as if it were in Triplets of Belville-verse. I can only play the game for brief periods of time before getting frustrated because I am lunkhead who can't remember the Pythagorean Theorem.

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I have been hankering for a mech game but as far as I can tell there are only two for the 360: Chromehounds & Armored Core 4 - neither of which really sound all that awesome. Chromehounds does sound better - it focuses on online mech squad play. I often wonder why there's such a serious lack in the mech department. Who wouldn't want to play a game with giant robots bashing the shit out of things?

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That's it in a nutshell. Started taking medication so we'll see how that works out. Hope all of you are well and have a good week.

It's funny because it's true.

Acheivement Whores - Watch more free videos

007 and the modicum of chillax: first look at the teaser poster.

Netflix & XBOX Live or how I pooped on myself even more.

So there was an article on MSNBC about a possible merger between Netflix & XBOX Live. I'm a big fan of being able to download movies from XBOX Live so expanding the collection available would be pretty darn neat. While I do miss special features more often than not the special features are worthless anyway - unless it Guillermo Del Toro. I hope this comes to pass.

Movie Review Query Engine or how I just pooped on myself.

I was looking for reviews of Death Wish and came across the Movie Review Query Engine. As some of you may know I love reading reviews - good and bad. It's pretty cool to be able to check out reviews from all types of sources not just the few on metacritic.com

The Brave One (2007) Dir. Neil Jordan

It's very difficult not to make comparisons between The Brave One (2007) and Taxi Driver (1976) or Death Wish (1974). The Brave One plays like a combination of the two but can't really make the movie gel. There are other vengeance movies but these three in particular use New York City not only as a location but as a character. Unlike the NYC of thirty years ago today's NYC is a "Disneyland, safe for tourists and out-of-towners" and "the safest big city in the world." The Brave One chips at this new and shiny veneer but never really gets past it.

The basic premise of The Brave One is pretty simple. Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain, a public radio talk show host who wanders the city recording ambient sound and saying public radio stuff about the changing city, etc, etc. If you listen to NPR you'll know what I mean. Her fiance is the Indian guy from Lost - Naveen Andrews. I was worried there would be some sort racial hate crime factor but there wasn't. I was also glad to see that Jodie Foster wasn't a lesbian - that would have been too heavy handed and would have turned the movie into a preachier IFC movie. One night Erica and her fiance take their dog for a walk in Central Park. A gang of hoodlums take the dog, beat the fiance to death, and put Jodie Foster in a coma. It's actually a jarringly violent scene - as it should be - but it's also given a eerily realistic quality by the fact that one of the assailants is digitally recording it. I don't know why that aspect made me uneasy - possibly because sick fuckers actually do this and rewatch it for fun. Bain ends up in a coma for weeks, wakes up, and is a total mental trainwreck who can't leave her apartment. Then one day she buys a pistol and we all know what happens after that.

Foster is pretty good in The Brave One and Terence Howard is hands down one of my current favorite actors. The cinematography is solid and Neil Jordan is still a pretty sharp director. Unfortunately the script and story are pretty weak with and ending that pretty much flushes any message or credibility the movie could have had. I was actually looking forward to a film about the effects of intense violence on a person - mentally, spiritually, ethically, and morally (what I was hoping to get from A History of Violence)- and the effects of her vigilante rampage would have on the general public. These were all touched upon in the movie but only in passing, Bernie Goetz is mentioned even. I guess I was also expecting a "bad old New York" feel - a.k.a. beneath all the lights and sparkle there's a festering sewer of humanity. The first half of the movie is actually pretty good now that I think about it but the second half is a complete and total cop-out. The ending seems like it was tacked on because test audiences didn't like the real ending.

In the end The Brave One falls pretty flat and doesn't put any real focus on any of the issues that could have been addressed. Disappointing at best.

Upcoming games I think I will purchase...or rent...

The Long Kinda Sorta Maybe Good Friday.

Kind of a quick rundown today - nothing major that I know of:

• Was sent an email by Mike this morning directing me to a link on Ain't it Cool about the digital editing of the US trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At first I was pretty annoyed but the annoyance has shifted over to, "Well that's fucking typical." Apparently MP40s (German submachine guns) are not supposed to be pointed at our heroes. I rewatched the trailer with a more critical eye and realize that the CGI doesn't really look all that good. I'm a little disappointed but remember that the Indy series has some terrible FX. I guess I'll just have to get over it.
• One of my favorite webcomics Questionable Content has taken a sort of surprising direction. Not to say that I didn't see it coming I just didn't think that it would actually happen. Hey, some people watch WB shows. I read webcomics.
• I'm working on adding/tweaking/fiddling the links at the bottom of the page as well as some of the feeds and good stuff like that. Trying to make it a little more one stop shopping.
• BCIII has been adding more trailers and good stuff over at http://pihytrailers.blogspot.com/.
• If any of you have a copy of James Horner's score for Krull please let me know. Don't mock just because it's Krull - it's a really good score.
• The GTAIV site is live. I am torn between devouring all the info I can and just avoiding any and all news about it.

That's all for now folks. Hope you guys have a good weekend. I'm gonna be on lockdown because the house is a shambles and I'm wearing my emergency clean clothes.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Monday: Weekend recap, assorted news, updates, and goodness.

I had to start today's post with that. Thanks to Mark for sharing Rap Lyric Charts & Graphs.

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Roy Scheider died. He is no longer picking his toes in Poughkeepsie. I always did like him.

* * *

You might have seen the TV Spot for Lost Odyssey with White Rabbit playing in the background. Here's the extended TV spot.

It could be a good game but then again it could be a Final Fantasy knock-off with all the JRPG themes and look and Nobuo Uematsu scoring. Release date is tomorrow and I'll just have to see what the reviews say before I pick it up.

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I will reveal the new Super Secret Recipe over on Hooligan Youth Reviews Food either today or tomorrow.

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Bart's been putting more trailers up on Hooligan Youth & Peevish Insomniac Present: Movie trailers. Jeebus, we've got a site for evrything these days.

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Hope everyone is well and haven't been attacked by Brain Wasps.

Look what we have to work with.

These are some of my coworkers during the busy times: Flour Tortilla Jeremy and Baby Joey. Brings a tear to my eye - this blog's for you guys.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty demo, Burnout Paradise online fun, and something else...

I' ve been pretty geared up for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (02/26). Personally I am a huge sucker for speculative fiction based on the USA getting invaded - i.e. Red Dawn, Freedom Fighters, The Man in the High Castle. This isn't because I am not a patriot it's because I think Americans would kick the Hell out of an invading force. Could you imagine the Red Army trying to take down Chicago? The demo is available for download and it's impressive as all get out. I worry that it won't be able to go the distance - FPS tend to fall apart at the end. That doesn't mean I won't play the shit out it though.

* * *

Burnout Paradise is a frickin' blast online. It's because it's so easy to get online - if you have an account that is - just tap right on the D-pad and select what you want. Sometimes the servers get bogged down but more often than not there's no delay in game play - no pain in the ass menus or waiting period. I'm a big fan of ghosting people who are crashing and smashing - if someone is just running time laps or jumps or basically not bothering anyone I leave them alone. I do love smashing the living shit out of opponents though and playing high speed chase. I was joking with Amanda that Burnout Paradise is nothing but big kids playing Hot Wheels.


I forgot what the something else was...oh yeah!

For those of you still playing Mass Effect - there will be downloadable content March 10th. It will introduce a new race and new planet and will called Bring Down the Sky and will be available for 400 points. I think that's pretty cool. I already sold my copy so if someone downloads this let me know how it is.

Rambo (2008) dir. Sylvester Stallone & War (2007) dir. Philip G. Atwell

I'm gonna get this out of the way - you either want to see this movie or you don't. If you don't that's fine and understandable though First Blood is a good movie. If you are going to see Rambo then you know exactly what you are getting.

Personally I liked it. I had a crappy morning and went to go see it with some buddies and it turned my mood around. Rambo kills the living hell out of bad Burmese. It's not quite as gory as I was led to believe - yes it is gory and intensely violent - but a good amount of the blood is digital. Digital blood just doesn't cut it in my book. There are some moments of cheer worthy carnage though.

Here's the plot: Rambo is a snake hunter/collector in Thailand. He is very sad and alone with his anger and pain. Christian missionaries need his help getting up river to Burma to deliver medical aid and care. Rambo says, "Go home.". Missionary lady says, "Help us." Rambo says, "Fine." Rambo drops off missionaries and goes home. Missionaries help people then get captured by evil Burmese warlord. Rambo finds out. Everything goes to hell. Rambo kicks ass. Bad guys die. Fin.

I thought the direction was perfectly reasonable and all in all there was nothing wrong with the movie - what'd you expect fucking Chekov? It's Rambo. I really enjoyed the ending - it tied up the entire series very nicely.

* * *

War is a Jet Li/Jason Statham action movie by Philip G. Atwell (director of rap videos). We watched it last night after gorging ourselves on Chinese BBQ and shredded Nanking pork. We wanted something totally mindless, violent, and about as challenging as Go Fish. War not only delivered but it was actually pretty good and an excellent example of what a non-HK/HK-styled movie should be like. All the elements were there and put together in a proper fashion. Jason Statham plays some ass kicking Asian crime unit of the FBI guy. His partner gets killed by Jet Li - a super bad ass CIA trained assassin who is only known as "Rogue". Rogue disappears. Three years later there a territory is breaking out in San Francisco between Triads and the Yakuza. Side note: Just to let everyone - including Jason Statham - know "Yakuza" is plural for "Yakuza". A Yakuza club is shot to hell by...that's right...Rogue. Jason Statham is on the job. Action and vengeance ensues.

War is absurd and pretty cut and dry - especially if you've seen a good amount of HK action movies - but the direction is slick, the violence is bloody, there are fucking ninjas, the cast is a good who's who of quality supporting actors, the music is good cinematic hip-hop, and it's actually a good Jet Li/Jason Statham movie. A good Saturday afternoon movie, hell I'll buy it when I see it for about $10.

Burnout Paradise, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, GTA IV, and more...

If you're not familiar with the Burnout series then drop whatever it is you're doing and go buy a copy of Burnout 3. It's my favorite racing series because:

1. I suck at racing games and yet I can play the hell out of a Burnout game.
   
2. People can just pick up and play these games.
   
3. The level of destruction and lots of pretty pretty sparks.


4. In real life you really wish you could slam some annoying bastard's car into oncoming traffic or into a median.
   

Burnout Paradise is the latest installation in the series and so far is proving to be an exciting addition. I put in about five hours last night and was beginning to think it was too easy. Then I played a race and got totally wiped so I guess it's not too easy. What I like about the game is that the map is totally open from the start. Every intersection and stretch of road has some kind of event to play. Starting a race consists of driving around, coming up to an intersection, and pulling LT & RT. The race starts. There's a lot to find and explore in this game - which is one of my favorite tasks in games. The Road Rages are fun especially since the other cars will find you instead of having to find them - meaning you can careen through construction sites and cut throughs at top speed instead of sticking to the main streets. I like addition of the Marked Man races - get to the finish line in one piece with enemy vehicles trying to wreck you all the way. The Racing is fun though frustrating because there are so many ways to go. Once you have a solid knowledge of cut-throughs and sneaky way then it makes it a lot more fun - i.e. I won a backwoods curving roads race by simply driving straight down the railroad tracks at full speed.
The game looks great, the cars are fun to drive, the crashes are wicked gnarly, and I look forward to playing it online. The one downside is the music. It's a strange mix of old and new and cuts from earlier Burnout games. After a while I turned it off and just listened to The Sword.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is a DS Lite turn based strategy game based in a post-apocalyptic world. Meteroids struck the Earth and everything went to shit and now it's up to our heroes to band together and fight bandits and assorted whackos. So far it's addictive as a sonofabitch and hopefully has a boatload of replay value.

There is finally a release date for GTA IV 04-29-08. Finally a reason to get up in the morning.

Heath Ledger overdoses. Permanently.

Wow. Well at least Batman was finished. I just hope we don't have to see millions of retrospectives like we did when River Phoenix died.

Pandora, Metal, Work, and the Tree of Woe.

I finally got a day off after 18 days in the tall grass. Fortunately the hours have gone back to normal (9-5) though the hours may still be 9-7.

One good thing to have come out of the last few weeks was the amount of labour I've put into working on my Pandora playlists. If you're not familiar with Pandora then let me fill you in - it's a "Music Genome Project". Basically it's a music player based on your tastes...more or less. You can thumbs up and thumbs a track a la yahoo radio but with better results and better music. If you scroll down a bit after reading this you'll see radio stations I've been working on. Click the link.

Another good thing that has come out this Pandora experimentation has been my finding of "new" and "interesting" music. From here on out I'm gonna be talking about Metal so if you don't have any interest in Metal quit reading.

I am a Metal fan. However I am not a metal fan that will listen to anything and in all honesty most Metal would be better off if there wasn't a lead singer - especially one who barks lyrics. So one day I checked out Pandora's "Stoner Metal Rock" station. Diretly before tuning into the station I was bitching/whinging/being Josh about, "I wish there was Metal that was actually good...you know like the first three Sabbath albums...etc, etc, etc..." I turned on the station and heard The Sword and my jaw dropped.

The Sword fucking rock. After I did my chores I cracked open a beer. Yay rewards! I played some music and just dicked around and then I said, "Fuck! The Sword!". I downloaded the album and have listened to it pretty much nonstop for the past several hours. It's heavy. It grinds. There are songs about wolves. I'm amazed this band is from Austin. It's awesome. I wish I was listening to it right now. In fact:

Witch is also good but after a while I realized that it sounds...too polished. Witch is a project of J. Mascis - Dinosaur Jr - and is good but sounds like an album that was made by someone who plays other stuff normally. Still makes for good Heavy Metal listening though.

More news to follow. Going to see Cloverfield tonight.

"I pray to Shiva - Please, let me die."

How's that for a flashback? I first saw it in '96 and it warped my fragile little mind. Thanks, Mike! What is kind of strange is watching EBN's videos and they are still pertinent. Y'know what with the war and everything.

Still busy at work but I had to make a post. Check out this trailer. If you've seen it already you'll understand my excitement:

Oh. Hells. Yes. The other day I was shipping books and chatting with Mark and said, "I wonder what Neil Marshall's been doin'?" Apparently he has been making awesome. Sheer and total awesome. Comes out March 14th. I can't wait.

There's more assorted news and reviews coming down the line but that'll have to wait until I get a day off.

Update and a minor rant.

Going to be absent for a bit longer folks. School starts on Monday and all the students are coming back and going to storm the walls.

Oh yeah, minor rant.

Spiderman 3 was so bad that when it was over I said, "I want to starve a badger, hit it constantly with a stick, and then mail it to Sam Raimi. When he opened the box the badger would latch onto him, peel the skin off his face, burrow down his throat, and tear him open from the inside." I hated Spiderman 3. I'm not a Spiderman fan, personally I don't like Spiderman period, but Spiderman 3 was almost worse than Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider, and the Tom Jane Punisher combined. Don't waste your money on this crap splatter.

Hope all of you are well. Upcoming reviews and a return to regularly scheduled blogging ASAP.

"Can you not see that I am direspectful to dirt?"

Hope all you fine folks had a perfectly reasonable holiday season. Ours was good. Saw Amanda's family. Drove around in the new car. Ate too much. Drank too much. Got presents. Oh yeah and Amanda and I are officially engaged. I'm sure there will be some kind of formal announcement of some sorts, consider yourselves warned.

In other news:

Amanda bought me a DS Lite and it is awesome. Okay she bought me one because I wouldn't stop using hers truth be told. I'm a couple of hours into Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and am enjoying it. Basically it's a noir-ish plot with lots of dialogue and some interesting puzzles. Nothing mind bending but nothing too simple either. I like the character design - black and white hand drawn - and the plot has been interesting enough for me to keep playing. Warhammer 40K: Squad Command is something I would recommend to a Warhammer 40K fan or possibly and turn based tactical game but for most people I wouldn't recommend it. It's cheezy and not the easiest game I've ever played. Personally I think with a little bit of spit and polish it would make an excellent XBOX360 Live game but that's just me. I love playing it though and have gotten some good laughs out of it - i.e. the catch phrase "I AM THE BRINGER OF DEATH!" makes me giggle. I am waiting for Amanda to finish Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon because well...it looks kind of damn neat and she's been playing the living hell out of it. Plus I'm in the mood for a soul sucking RPG.

As far as movies watched over the holiday break well...didn't see much. The only movie I got to see in the theater was Sweeny Todd. It was okay I guess. I really didn't enjoy it very much at all but they - Amanda & her sisters - liked it and had a good time. I guess I'm just done with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter and the whole Burtonverse.

Saw Once on DVD. It was charming, bittersweet, Irish, and all in all was a pretty good movie that didn't go quite in the direction I thought it was going to. The soundtrack by The Frames is solid singer/songwriter guitar/piano stuff. Personally it's not my normal cup of tea but for a quiet afternoon it was a nice movie.

Watched the latest Harry Potter & the Whatever Whatever last night. It was pretty good I guess but I could tell that there was a lot left out from the book or glossed over or cherry picked. I haven't read the books either and I could tell. All in all it was a Harry Potter movie. There was some magic and some Alan Rickman and some Voldemort and a John Williams score.

That's the long and short of it folks. I'm going to be going online to wage war in Call of Duty 4 so you can expect a review/rant about me getting "pwned" by fourteen year olds.

Grahgh! Finally a word from Hooligan Youth!

December buybacks have come to an end. That was exhausting. Those of you fine folks who are getting presents in the mail will be getting them when I have the chance to - no worries.

I will try to get a post up about the movies and games and assorted goodness during the break. I hope that all of you are well and have/are having a good holiday. Don't panic.

Much love and assorted warm fuzzy feelings.

xoxoxoxo

Hooligan Youth a.k.a. Joshua

Hooray for cthulonic fantasy!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army trailer

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I liked the first one but this movie may actually be good!
enjoy!

Finally the real thing!

Thats right kids the First official poster for the new Indiana Jones film.
I'm sorta worried about this movie, but after seeing that they went with the original style poster art I am sorta warmed in the cockles by it...but maybe that just the wool pants I have on.
But hey, its our old pal indy!

Woo! Warhammer! Woo!

Mass Effect (2007)

I polished off Mass Effect on Sunday after forty something hours of gameplay. I'm pretty sure that I did everything in the game - I managed to get the Completionist achievement - but it didn't seem like there was that much to do. Maybe I'm just used to other RPGs that are pretty much time sinks *cough* Oblivion *cough*. I guess I was expecting something more...well more...

Mass Effect is an impressive game from character creation all the way to the cliffhanger ending. I enjoyed the hours of dialogue and depths of the Codex. I enjoyed driving the Mako across planetscapes and using it the run over Geth. There were a few moments where I worried about the characters and the events unfolding around them. Hard decisions were made and consequences were felt. The Universe was saved but was the cost worth it? The storyline is pretty straight forward if you're familiar with the Space Opera genre: bad guys are up to good, grim hero and companions are out to right wrongs and kick ass, experimental space ship with smart ass pilot - very ably voiced by Seth Green, pissed off alien allies, a seriously daunting foe, and a touch of romance.

I don't really have any problems with Mass Effect. I would recommend it to a friend or neighbour. A lot of the problems reviews had - slow elevators, load times, cumbersome inventory screens, driving the Mako, etc., etc. - didn't really bother me all that much. Personally I liked the elevators - they were an opportunity to have a stretch or go get a drink - plus there was dialogue between characters and on the Citadel there were news casts. So where is my vague sense of dissatisfaction coming from? The voice work of Jennifer Hale as the main character Commander Shepard was top notch, the story satisfying, the graphics great to look at, gameplay was perfectly reasonable, and yet I feel like I didn't get my fill. You ever been to a top notch restaurant and been blown away by the food but afterwards you realize that you're still hungry? That's the way I feel about Mass Effect.


Quite possibly the fact that I played Mass Effect very soon after I was playing KOTOR led to some disappointment. Where KOTOR allows for much more character control and influencing other characters and events Mass Effect just allows you to go in one direction or another. I also noticed that the other characters weren't terribly bothered by your actions. Where in KOTOR characters would make you guilty for being bad in Mass Effect they don't really care too much.

Sad to say the more I think about the game and what I liked and what I didn't like I and what I'm on the fence about the more I think, "Meh." If you're in the market for a RPG then I certainly recommend it - just don't expect the epic scope that some RPGs have - but if you're not an RPG fan I wouldn't bother.