Hungry for Grains

Three weeks ago I went to a zombie/vampire film festival. Among the sponsors was PopCap Games and this advertisement began the short film block:

I typically ignore video game advertisements, but this one took me to awareness, then interest, and ultimately action once I tried the free demo a few days later. I enjoyed it so much I bought it once and then again as a gift. PopCap used an excellent mix of humor, gameplay exhibition and target-specific advertising here that really worked. It doesn't hurt either that they have a history of fun/addictive games to garnish their reputation. Plants vs Zombies is no different in this respect. I feel compelled to warn you not to try the free demo until after finals week. You can also make a "zombatar!" on their website.

Game Over

I'd just like to point out that one of the fifth place contender(s) in that American Apparel costume contest I mentioned before was a series of Tetris blocks. Though I didn't include any of their products in my costume and was thus ineligible (I didn't have time to buy tights), think my costume is superior since it lacks the goofy looking face windows that totally detract realism. My actual only complaint, besides the inherent loneliness of being the only block, is how hot the costume got, which was a very nice considering the weather. Fortunately it didn't rain, though I'm confident it would have held up pretty well. I was happy with it. If I can find appropriete boxes and approprietely sized friends, I might try to make more. I got the boxes for free from Target, Party City, and a few others (most places have a surplus that just get recycled although it took a while to find matching sizes). Overall, it ended up costing less than twenty five dollars with the primary expense being the three rolls of white duct tape I went through. I posted pictures on my mobile blog as I went. Drunk pedestrians really enjoyed the costume. Many wanted to talk about it, or at least confirm that I was, in fact, the greatest video game character evar, which was difficult for me as I wanted to stay in character. The L-Block doesn't speak, though I would occasionally awkwardly pantomime with my torso and legs. The strangest adjulations proclaimed their hatred of rubix cubes.

Man Flips Out; Video Games Blamed

I'm a big fan of ninjas. In the war between Pirates and Ninjas, I am torn between my allegiance to His Noodliness and my desire to flip out. This story, however, is totally bogus. It is true that sometimes ninjas stab, but the correlation between the video game and the violence they try to make here is preposterous. Why? He bought the game after he stabbed the man, thus the game could not have influenced him to stab the man, barring some sort of event. Obviously the tendency to stab (the poke quotient?) was already present before the video game could have had any affect. Although, he did go on a stabbing spree, so he did flip out. The ninja video game is, at best, another expression of his ninjaness (or is it ninjativity?)

Suspect played ninja video game : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

The Joy of Cooking

I like to think of myself as a man straddling dichotomizes. Somewhere between awesome and not awesome, pumped and not pumped, asshole and douchebag, I live. That said, I truly do not know I feel about what I am about to discuss.

There are two types of programs which completely captivate me. Those are cooking shows and painting shows. I don't paint or cook the sorts of foods featured, but I remain transfixed. I think it's something about the way the hosts' speech that absolutely lulls me. Some shows more than others. For example, I don't really care for America's Test Kitchen, although I'm so rarely watching television in the afternoon, and, fortunately, I don't have cable or I might remain transfixed on Food Network, so my consumption of these programs is limited. I also really dislike Rachel Ray; she is just to perky. Also, they really should have a painting network. I would watch that all day long.

That paragraph didn't really go where I was intending and I used too many appositives, but this is no mistake. It was a happy accident. I regret to say that I don't believe I had discovered the Joy of Painting until after Bob's death, although I choose to acknowledge his contributions by not buying those shirts that say "Happy Little Trees" at Target or wherever. It's the least I can do, really. This, however, leaves me conflicted. The ability to relive my favorite Bob Ross moments, although on a platform I don't own, is a little exhilarating, and probably will be a much more frugal choice than his prohibitively priced episodes. Fortunately for us all, they are also available on VHS, even though the format is no longer supported.

I would also like to point out that cooking shows have some of the best names ever.

FAL-C-OWN PUNCH!!!

I grabbed the above image from a bulletin board at a community college. It made me go wtfffffff and fill with a rage that could only be properly expelled in one way.

Speaking of such an exciting weekend, how could I ever hope to cover everything in just one post? I probably won't ever cover everything that happened, even with me moblogging the significant events as they unfolded. I got a lot of perspective, to be certain. Unfortunately, no one wanted to try the methylene blue. More for me, I guess.

My host is an interesting fellow. Or is that was because he is no longer my host? That makes for an excellent segue: he is an english major with a high school drama background and a religious fervor, although technically agnostic, I believe. I don't wish to reveal his dox or I'd just link to his Myspace page, but the point is as a formerly Mormon bandgeek (on both accounts for the most part), we ran in different circles in high school and didn't become friends until senior year when we were thrust into a mandated reading group as part of the school's silly attempt to boost test scores. Eventually we went on zany adventures trying to get jobs as Elves in a Santa display and misadventures to numerous to name, tied by the common bond that we can't hardly get some. No one gets that reference, but it was the original title of this blog; it's still listed in my favorites under that name. In any case, I was the newest of his high school friends invited (many of whom I hadn't even realized I went to high school with at all!) and I often set up an antagonistic dynamic with people, especially people I like. I don't know why I'm always such a douche bag and see no reason to justify or rationalize it at the current time. The point is, I fell somewhere between observer and outsider. It was interesting. The offer of methylene blue probably didn't help any either. Oh well.

I'm going to end this post earlier than I had anticipated because I've realized I don't have anything productive to express at this moment. I told myself I'd work on one of my finals tonight, but it probably won't happen. I'll blame DST.

A Smashing Weekend

The poor quality image above is a shot of hordes of nerds lining up to receive their copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl at midnight this weekend. It was delayed multiple times, although not as much as Spore or Duke Nukem Forever have been, and this was probably the biggest video game launch since Halo 3. It was kind of a big deal. I was pretty apathetic about the whole thing (I would have been much more enthused about it if it had more exciting title like Brouhaha), but it gave me an opportunity to visit some friends, although not as many as I would have liked, and check out Eugene a bit and all the whatnot. And you know, I learned some things this weekend. I don't know if I will enumerate now since I've had less than eight hours of sleep for the last three days. But I am certainly not a hardcore gamer, although I did rock Risk pretty hard, but not Rock Band. I knew like three songs on that; I was pretty embarrassed for myself.



Next, a few pictures I took at a McDonald's we stopped at on our way back. This particular one was in Salem, while I don't visit many in this franchise, this one was a little different than any other I had ever been too. First is this kiosk in the play area. It had several video game systems set up running different games (see above). I felt weird being in there, so I didn't stay long but they looked to have approximately four Nintendo 64s. I never saw any children go near them, but I saw a parent play a skateboarding game. I found this interesting. I also found this creepy ass-mural and Ronald statue (see below). Ronald is feeding baiting a deer with what looks to be lettuce from a burger, perhaps the same one his pirate friend is fishing with, or did he just catch it? I'm not certain. Certainly, It's a very confusing image although I greatly enjoy the look of horror on the anthropomorphic hamburger's face. I can't remember the names of Ronald's friends, although the koosh ball ones remind me a great deal of Number/Word Munchers.



Of course, there is much more I could say about this weekend, but I've quite tired and I have a paper I need to edit. Fun times.

Press Y to Dual Wield

Think geek just added these toys. You can apparently play laser tag with them, although the laser sounds sound nothing like the plasma sounds from the games, although they are probably the most realistic Halo accessory you can find outside of eBay auctions. The laser-tag aspect seems like an after thought almost. The receiver is a tiny belt buckle, which from experience with other laser tag systems (when i was little!) is that those are easy to hide or otherwise obscure to cheat, but with the price tag these have, I doubt many children were playing. My family used to have 6 lasertag guns that also the sensors on the gun to avoid this problem. The beams also bounced off walls, which was weird. I think Ethan has destroyed pretty much all of them by now. Laser tag was/is fun.

I'm way more likely to buy one of these though. This, though I am a little tempted, I could never buy because, as my sister says, would get me "gang raped." Though I wonder, do they contain UV protection?

ThinkGeek :: Halo 3 Laser Pursuit Plasma Weapons

Sappin' My Life Away

In an act of unadulterated fail, I bought myself a copy of The Orange Box using the tainted logic that it was (approximately) the amount of money I would have spent on a special someone for Thursday. Instead I spent it on my most special someone: myself. It has been a rewarding decision so far. And I haven't even ventured into the Half-Life series yet!

I was going to write something snarky here about how no one reads this and then does it really matter if posting rate declines because I'm too busy playing games, but I haven't the heart for it right now. I know I'd certainly be more inclined to post more often if I recieved feedback. Tell your friends!

I was referred to this related video and I enjoyed it. Maybe you will to. If not, I highly recommend checking out Portal anyways.



----------------
Now playing: GLaDOS - Still Alive
via FoxyTunes

Orange Box <3

I'd been waiting to post that piece of Team Fortress humor for a while. Now some more Orange Box!


I love Weighted Companion Cube!

Fantastic!

Ender's Game Video Game

I am very excited about this. I have wanted this game for years. I hope it focuses almost entirely on the Battle Room and not the child nudity prevalent throughout the novel.

Level Up : Exclusive: Chair Entertainment's Donald and Geremy Mustard Shed Some Light On Their Plans For 'Ender's Game'

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ancient Pole Position Commercial

I've been a big fan of Lore Sjoberg since his ratings back at The Brunching Shuttlecocks. The site is sadly abandoned, but not derelict, although I can't say with any certainty how maintained his blog or other projects continued. I imagine the ratings stopped shortly after his book was published. In any case, he is now a contributor to Wired. His latest piece is wonderful:

Video Gallery: Best Vintage Tech Commercials

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Onion describes my friend Chris

To be fair, probably a tenth of mine are in some way related to various video games, if not more.

Half Of 26-Year-Old's Memories Nintendo-Related | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Most Important Issue

This is probably my number one issue in 2008.

Clinton Would Crack Down on Computer-Generated Cartoon Sex | Threat Level from Wired.com

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ahhhh

I am so disappointed! I should have ordered one last night when I first found out they were for sale. They are now sold out. Sure I could get the weighted companion cube fuzzies, but what's the point? Damn it...

The Valve Store

Powered by ScribeFire.

Hmmm

I'm not a very original person. Not like I can chose a new topic or anything at this point.

Pigeons Revenge and other Free Internet games @ CrazyMonkeyGames.com

Powered by ScribeFire.

Pillowtalk

I was going to get my exgirlfriend an apron that said "The cake is a lie" for Christmas, because I'd like to imagine that we're still friends, though we probably aren't so much. But since she did not want to take the copy of Portal I had made for her, that joke wouldn't make sense. This one would though:

My guy pillow - Official Site

Powered by ScribeFire.

I was just thinking about this

This sucks:

Spore (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Release date

The release date has been the subject of massive speculation, but as of November 23, 2007, Electronic Arts has maintained its tentative Spring 2008 release date.[5] On October 24, 2007, Wright stated that Spore was in a fully-playable build, and would be ready in roughly six months.[6]

Powered by ScribeFire.

Heroes, city of

Cool. I hadn't been really following this, but I'm kind of excited for it now.

City of Heroes Community Site

Powered by ScribeFire.

Weighted Companion Cube on Ebay

&lt;3

Weighted Companion Cube Plushie - eBay, Other Toys, Hobbies, Toys, Hobbies. (end time 07-Nov-07 22:20:49 AEDST)

Powered by ScribeFire.